Calming Countenance
by TwinsetWritings
Summary: Allen Walker was often plagued by nightmares and insomnia wrought by his life. A finder of the order takes notice, and helps him, using a method she was practing for a while. Now if only she could manage to keep her little trick to herself. (This is based off of a roleplay that was done, and is still going on. All I did was flesh it out a bit. Yes, there is an OC. No ships.)
1. Chapter One

**Calming Countenance**

Let's just say, no one at the order is free of having one hobby or another. For some, it's painting, others, they like to study the effects of science, seeing how they can bend the laws of chemistry itself in order to make something new. But no matter what, everyone had something that they could show off or introduce to their friends, or use for their own gains. For Calera, well, she kept her hobby under lock and key.

Sure, there were weirder hobbies to have in the order, but her's was of a particular strain of weird, a special kind of strange that most people shrouded in fear and apprehension. And whenever Calera wanted to practice her little talent, she found herself stuck. In order to perform the feat, she needed two or more people, no matter what. That was why she, with careful phrasing, went to go ask one of the only people she thought wouldn't think her weird if she were to ask.

Calera knew that the guy was starting to fall behind on his training and his own strength from what she heard as she did some off hand tasks for Chief Komui. Apparently it was all from a lack of rest, and that's exactly what Calera wanted to help with first. so she went off to go find him before he was shoved off on another mission. Yes, the man she was looking for happened to be an exorcist, one that the main council didn't seem to appreciate very much, although most everyone in the order (barring a few finders and crows) seemed to love his good will and helpful nature.

After a small while, Calera managed to find the white-haired guy walking down the main hall, having probably just eaten his expansive dinner from the cook, and hoping to get some decent rest this night. Well, that's what Calera hoped to give him as well, so off she went with her own plan. Clearing her throat, she stumbled over her words, before squeaking out; "Master Walker, I understand you've been having some trouble getting rest…if...if you would like, I know a small trick that might help you. It's very relaxing, and I promise that you'll feel wonderful afterwards! Would you like to try?"

Allen turned his head towards the slightly shorter girl (he was 5'9, after all), and nodded his head as she began to speak, wordlessly agreeing with her. _'Some trouble getting rest' _was putting it mildly. For the past week Allen has been plagued with nightmares, and his mind had plenty of material to work from. His fear of his friends dying, the Akuma, the Earl and Noah, the 14th and Mana… No one was surprised the boy had trouble sleeping. But a _**week**_ of little to no sleep was getting ridiculous. Allen was exhausted and willing to try _anything_.

"It's worth a shot," he said, smiling kindly at the girl. "Thanks… What is it you want to try?" As long as it wasn't something having to do with any of Komui's potions or with bodily injury, Allen was pretty comfortable with any idea the finder could come up with. It wasn't like she would try anything that he couldn't just fight free of and leave if he wanted to, so he wasn't very concerned.

Calera softly smiled, and managed to get her voice completely even before continuing. The rush she felt of just getting someone to accept her offer on the first try always shocked her enough to scramble her voice. Someone actually was willing to let her try it…possibly! It was only a shot in the dark, but as long as Allen was a bit curious, she had a chance of trying it out. "Well, it's something I've been practicing for years now. It's called hypnosis, ever heard of it, Master Walker?"

Allen had, and immediately had some reservations on the topic. Lavi had been sure to tell him of horror stories of people that had supposedly done abhorrent things while being underneath a trance, and Allen didn't want to have anything to do with that. Being frank, he had enough problems just trying to keep his own mind away from the odd spirit in his head, let alone someone who he barely knows. "I'm not so sure about that, putting my mind in someone else's control doesn't sound very safe."

Well, Calera was quick to try to dispel that myth on the spot. A little misinformation was expected, and she didn't blame Allen for it at all, but she would have to to explain what the topic truly was before she lost her chance."All it does is lures the conscious mind into such a state of relaxation, that one might like to sleep. It rests the body, while leaving the subconscious mind completely awake. That way, you still have some control over yourself, and I can't force you to do anything you wouldn't have wanted to do anyway."

Not a total truth either, though. When the mind was as blank and relaxed as it could be, it was far more open to suggestion than Allen probably thought possible, and normally rejected the tasks that Allen would fight against on a basic level, making most anything possible. But she probably wouldn't have to tell him that, it wasn't like she had planned to do anything disastrous with the man. "Are you willing to let me try, Master Walker?

"I'm willing to try it out, just don't do anything too strange to me, alright?" he decided. Calera looked genuine, as far as Allen could tell, and he trusted his ability to read people. Besides, he was so desperate for a chance to sleep that he missed half the conversation anyway, and just decided to go with her reasoning, even if he still didn't fully understand it. He would make a perfect subject to work with after a long time of little practice.

"Okay!"

The finder began walking off through the order, beckoning Allen to follow. Calera was _not_ going to do this task where someone else might witness her or Allen. "Hey! I'm not just going to do it out in the open, so come on! We're going somewhere where you can actually rest!" The brown haired woman had had too many awkward circumstances to even think about trying it anywhere that she might be seen. Chalk it up to her simple social anxiety, but there was no way in hell she was going to speak a word of induction until they reached somewhere more seclusive.

Allen saw nothing wrong with the statement, and followed her willingly. "Of course." He replied. It made perfect sense to do this in a place he can actually relax, as he himself felt a bit odd about taking part in this procedure. Imagine if Link or maybe even Lavi saw him trying such a thing out! Link would probably just say something about how Allen needed to find better ways to rest, but Lavi... '_For my own sleep, and for Calera's own comfort, I guess.'_

They walked on down the halls of the order, making their way over to a small room, mainly separated from the bedroom halls. Calera chose this room from her own social anxiety, so she could make noise and walk around without the worry of someone noticing her. Looking back, she couldn't have really chosen a better spot. "This is my room, Allen. Go ahead and lie on the bed and get comfortable, it's nice and soft! You'll be asleep before you know it!" Calera pushed open the wooden door and walked in ahead of him, leaving the door open in warm invitation.

Allen walked in directly behind, and gazed around curiously. The room looked smaller than most bedrooms in the order; apparently finders don't get as much comfort as most of the other workers here. "But shouldn't we do this in my room though? I don't want to take your bed from you; I might end up sleeping a long time…" As exhausted as he was, Allen wouldn't be surprised if he slept the rest of the day and through the night. The few times Allen did manage to sleep well, he slept for nearly half the day, making Link have to search for him quite a lot.

But Calera shook her head, responding; "No, I'd rather you sleep where someone won't disturb you. You need as much sleep as you can get, and someone coming by won't help you at all! And besides, if you end up sleeping that long anyway, I can survive going without rest a day." If longer than even that, the finder would just sneak a nap or two in the exorcist's own room, it couldn't be that bad to sleep in an unoccupied area!

Calera didn't mention it outright, but she also was cautious of anyone seeing any trigger words that she might use during or after the induction. If someone learned of those, she would never hear the end of it from either Allen, or whoever had learned the phrase to begin with! And besides, if this worked, she didn't want anyone to try to wake him up too early, either, so she tried to make it so that way nothing of the sort was necessary.

She sat on the lone, comfy but stiff wooden chair that lay adjacent to her bed, right in the corner of the room. It would give her a good view of Allen, but also hide her if anyone swung open the door to see what was going on. Many a book was read and hidden here whenever one of the other finders decided to just randomly drop in, so the stage was already set for her. All that needed to happen now was to get Allen as prepared as possible.

"Now, are you ready to begin, Master Walker?"

Satisfied with the explanation, Allen nodded agreeingly, but gazed around, noticing only the bed and the chair in the nearly empty room. "Should I lie down? Or sit…?" He asked. He was starting to feel a little nervous, but as this was something he had never done before, and if it worked he would be giving a lot of trust, he felt that he was justified to be at least a little nervous about it.

"Well, there is a bed…What do you expect me to ask you to do?" Calera joked before adding; "Just lie down and get as comfortable as you can. You might be feeling a bit nervous, but I can assure that that'll pass soon enough, Master Walker." A small bit of anxiousness was normal, so Calera expected him to be a little hesitant.

She paused. _Master Walker_, perhaps using that would be a bit too formal to speak with. "You wouldn't mind if I called you Allen, at least until this is over, would you? It would sound a lot friendlier, and would help you relax more than if I still spoke as if you were higher than I."  
Whether or not he said yes, she would begin her induction once he became comfortable on the mattress. Calera could easily just avoid using his name as she spoke is he still wanted to be so formal.

Luckily, he didn't seem to have such formal reservations. "Allen is fine, of course! Sorry, I should have said earlier…" Allen felt slightly embarrassed. He hadn't even noticed how formally the finder had even been speaking. _I really am tired… _

He sat on the bed, pulling off his boots before laying back. He shifted around a few moments, trying to get comfortable. Once he settled on the mattress, he looked up at the girl, who had been patiently waiting for the other to settle down. "Ok, what now?" Allen's head was pounding with sleeplessness, and he hoped that Calera would hurry and just find a way to knock him out.

"Just give me a moment, Allen." It was the moment of truth. Calera shook down the worry that plagued the back of her mind from her disuse of the subject. Having a shaky voice would never guide Allen to the state she wanted him to be in. The younger exorcist himself was already so tired, but his nervousness would always rule over how tired he was if she herself didn't sound confident and soft.

Calera took a deep breath, and began to speak as smoothly as she could, treating her speech more like soft music than the bright tones she normally uses. She decided to use a simple induction that she had self-taught herself a while ago, and had memorized if she could ever use such a thing.

"Now, I'm going to ask you to focus on your breath for a couple of minutes. Breathe as deeply, but as easily as you can…Allow your eyes to just softly close. Now, if you would, I'd like you to rest comfortably in the bed, as much as you possibly can… that's right … just allowing the bed to support you, settling down easily, with your feet flat on the covers, arms resting at your sides, or gently on your lap; head and neck in a comfortable position … You're doing wonderfully, Allen."

Allen concentrated on relaxing his body and breathing. It was pretty easy, as he was already so tired. _I really hope this works…_ Right now, he didn't feel all that different; it was just like he felt normally, just lying down, his mind still buzzing around like it usually did. Allen was comfortable, admittedly, but not any more than he was at any random night.

She continued;"Very good, and now that you are very comfortable, I'd like you to become aware of your breathing. Just feel the coolness of your breath as it enters your nostrils, noticing your chest as it rises and falls, rises and falls, in an easy and natural rhythm, your own perfect and natural rhythm."

'_Huh, it feels a bit weird, a bit like my own fan in my throat.'_ Allen noticed, breathing slowly and deeply as he fell into a pattern of breathing. Allen himself didn't notice, but as he paid attention to how he breathed, he visibly looked more relaxed and cool, and his breaths slowed as he focused on them more as well.

Calera paused for a moment to let him get settled before continuing; "Just breathing in … and out … In … and out … just allow your awareness to focus on your breath … However… I wonder if you can think a very unusual thought…I wonder if you can imagine that you can breathe… through the tips of your fingers. Imagine that unusual thought that you can really breathe in through your fingertips… imagine that you can feel the air flowing into your hands. Cool and comforting…"

Allen continued to listen to her voice, following the instructions. His eyebrows rose a bit in calm curiosity as he felt what the finder had described. It was nearly as if his breathing had suddenly leaped from just being at his mouth and nose to his hands as well, cooling down his body from three areas instead on just from his throat. _This is kind of weird…_ he thought, but he let that thought fade as he relaxed, his mind becoming a bit too foggy to really process it as unnatural or concerning.

It was nearly if he was pushing himself into the thralls of trance. Calera was barely guiding him, and Allen looked like he was moments away from being as deeply asleep as anyone she has ever worked with before! He was certainly one of Calera's best subjects, and she felt nearly inclined to try to convince him to let her put him under more often. That is, if she can complete the first one now, of course.

Calera couldn't tell if her induction was truly working, or if Allen was just getting bored. She softly continued, hoping that, if he was bored, he'd just fall asleep from her talking anyway. Allen certainly looked relaxed enough, strewn on the bed as if he were asleep already, and his eyes vaguely twitching, notifying her that he still wasn't completely asleep yet.

"Slowly at first… just with a faint, comfortable, cooling sensation which you might sense on the back of your hands… or perhaps in your hands."

"Imagine that feeling flowing slowly traveling up your arms… your elbows… just imagine that relaxing flow of air that is flowing through your elbows into your upper arms… and then into your shoulders… both arms…smoothly traveling into your shoulders. The air feels so cool, so calm and refreshing."

Allen was completely relaxed, breathing slowly and half asleep. His body felt like it was made mostly of air, yet also way too heavy for him to even think about moving, if he thought about it. His thoughts were slowing tremendously, and he vaguely wondered if that was how they were supposed to feel before her words flooded over his attempt at thought.

'_Oh…ohhh'_, it looked like it was working. Calera could see how his eyes slowly stopped twitching, and he lay still, almost as if he was asleep. She was so close, and so, she continued on, spurred by her near success.

"Now with each cool breath you take, with each word I speak… you become constantly more and more… relaxed… beginning now, to notice the heaviness of your head against the back of the pillow you lay on…" She purred, watching as Allen, if anything, seemed to sink further into the covers.

"Beginning to sink gently through the bed… so that it feels almost as if the covers are starting to wrap around you… gently, comfortable, Allen, you must feel so calm right now, so comfortable and happy."

Allen gave a soft noise of compliance, grinning dazedly as she told him how comfortable and happy it felt. His head felt like a boulder, but the pillow held it up for him, so Allen couldn't bring himself to worry. He couldn't bring himself to even think about worrying, or think about much else than what Calera was describing, and even that was turning into a challenge as she kept speaking.

"A sensation of great peace and security… comfortable relaxation… that improves with each breath you take, with each word I speak…with each word that you hear… as you proceed to breathe in … allowing that relaxing, warming, relaxing flow of air…to flow through your entire body and out through your feet. All your thoughts are replaced with this comfortable, relaxing feeling, and you let them go. You don't need them, Allen, you trust this place you are in, and you want to just let yourself feel it more and more."

Allen's thoughts slowed more and more, and his breathing turned into soft, deep gushes of air, punctuated by little whistles that was likely the best the white haired exorcist had ever done for snoring. '_All I __want is __to feel_…' Anything that he was thinking of flowed out of Allen's mind, replaced by what felt to be like a comforting blanket of nothing.

"You discover yourself to be… to be more relaxed… than you have ever been before…So you drop down, deep into relaxation, deep into the hypnosis that you let me bring you into." Calera ceased speaking, just watching Allen for any signs that he wasn't completely under, or that she really did just talk him into simple unconscious sleep.

If Allen had been awake, he would have been amazed that the hypnosis actually worked. But, it did, so he was not really aware of anything. Well, even that wasn't quite true, he was hyper-aware of what Calera was saying, but everything else just seemed to disappear. All he was doing was laying there, thinking of nothing, waiting for nothing, just drifting away in his own mind. Even his dazed grin had left his face, replaced by a slightly upturned, but loose smile.

She finished her induction, and just stopped. "It…worked." It was obvious that it had, Allen looked like he couldn't be moved for the world! Calera supposed now would be the time to just let him sleep, but her mind kept nagging her. '_Hey! You put him under, at least give him a post-hypnotic trigger or two! He probably wouldn't mind it if you didn't make them too embarrassing!'_

_'...' _She couldn't do it. Calera agreed only to help Allen rest, and that was what she planned to do. She would likely suggest some things here and there to help bring him under in the future, but taking advantage like that was just simply out of the question. Allen was just being far too good of a subject for her to not try to get back under later. Sighing, the finder carefully thought of what to say next, as Allen was quite impressionable in this state, and she didn't want to say anything she didn't mean.

A benign question shouldn't hurt to start, as it would tell her how he tries to speak while under as well, as everyone takes relaxation differently. "Allen? How do you feel?"

As soon as she finished talking, she saw Allen's mouth futilely trying to work, as if he was speaking as well as he could, but the sleepy sprout was too relaxed to even make a noise. Calera would have to settle for the contented humming noise he made in the back of his throat when he put the most effort into his voice-box, before he suddenly dropped back down, letting his mouth hang open, as if that piece of his body wasn't even there.

"Next time anyone asks you a question while you are in this state Allen, you'll find you have just enough energy to answer them, although the energy you used will just help serve to bring you farther down into this state. Do you understand?" As entertaining as watching Allen try to speak was, Calera still would need a semi cohesive answer from him every once in a while, so she felt like this was pretty necessary.

Allen answered her again, this time using a very soft, nearly inaudible tone that she heard, only because his voice was the only one speaking in the room at the moment. "Yeah..." The voice trailed off into nothing, and Calera could swear that she saw Allen sink just the finest bit further into the mattress, although only slightly. It was surprising that he could actually find a way to sink further, especially considering it was only his first time being put under!

"Good, you must just want to feel that clear, open bliss more and more, to go deeper and deeper, don't you?"

"Yesssss..." Allen tiredly mumbled, heavily hissing on his s' as his voice left him.

Calera was confident that Allen would probably accept the next offer more easily than she probably could have ever hoped for, and pushed onwards with confidence. "That's wonderful, Allen. And you will be able to, along with be able to return to this beautiful trance as often as you would like to. All it will take is the simplest phrase. Would you like to hear what will bring you back here, even deeper than you are now?" Jeez, she said a lot. Maybe she should try honing in her mouth after she was done with all this as well.

"Yes..." Allen drawled. More than simple statements were far beyond his abilities at the moment, and judging by how he always had to suddenly shift his breath and sometimes even speak around a line of spit that was beginning to form, the short sentences he's managing might be too much soon as well, if Calera planned to keep him under like this much longer.

"Then I'll tell you, since you seem so eager to know, Allen. The special phrase is known as simply; 'sink and listen'. You know that for a fact now, don't you Allen?" Calera smoothly uttered, already expecting the answer.

"Yeah..." There was no question In Allen's mind. Calera said it would, and it would. There was no reason to question it, and his mind wasn't anywhere near close enough to question it anyway. Allen was already so far down in his own mind, only being pushed further down the more questions he answered. And Calera knew that, so she decided to end the session where they were. Maybe next time Calera could help deal with some of Allen's fears or his bad habits next time! Maybe even let her give him a fun little trigger to play with as well.

"Perfect, you did just perfectly, my friend. Now, I'm going to gently count from five down to zero, and when I reach zero, you will easily slip from this peaceful trance into complete, non-hypnotic slumber. You will only wake up when you feel perfectly rested, or, if extremely necessary, you need to eat. Do you understand, Allen?"

"Yes" He muttered, his mind falling down just a bit more already.

"Alright. Five, feeling the beginnings of gentle sleep tug at your body...Four, feeling the clearness of your mind fog up with cloudy tiredness...Three..." And so she went on, counting down until she had finally reached zero, and Allen made no visible notice in posture as he fell into heavy slumber.


	2. Chapter Two

Time passed, and Calera (quite impatiently) waited for Allen to wake up. Allen had managed to sleep throughout the night, and she wanted her bed back soon, along with a chance to check to see how well her suggestions worked. She hadn't slept much that night herself, but at least it gave her a chance to help with her twin sister's work over with the scientists. Calera was far too excited from all the luck she had just the day before. If all went according to plan, perhaps she could work with the kind exorcist again before Komui assigned him to another mission!

Allen woke up slowly, feeling very well rested and comfortable. He sat up and stretched, yawning as he looked around, not recognizing his surroundings. He wondered where he was, but then his eyes fell on Calera, and he remembered the events the day before. '_Damn, that felt great! I didn't feel worried or stressed or anything! It felt like I was free from every care in the world right then, and...maybe sometime I should ask her to use that little phrase on me. I don't know if a word can give me quite the same effect as that speech she gave, but I certainly wouldn't mind it if it did!'_

"Morning…" he said, smiling."If it is still morning… I hope I didn't inconvenience you too much." Man, he felt wonderful. Maybe parasite types need sleep just as much as food! But he knew that that was one of the longest and most relaxing nights he's had in a long while."I just want to say thank you, Calera. You don't know how much I needed a break like that." '_And how much I sort of want one soon as well...'_

She shrugged it off, simply stating; "Don't worry about it! You needed the rest! And besides, it's a finder's job to help an exorcist. If you need it any other time, it shouldn't be too hard to find me! Komui has me as a plain old delivery girl over for the scientists and sometimes the crows, so just head over there to find me!" Calera hid her own excitement as she noticed the obvious gleam that shone in Allen's eyes at the thought. Apparently her benign little suggestion took a deeper hold than she thought, or maybe Allen wanted this even without the help of her words! "Now, shouldn't you be heading off to go get some food? I'm sure you must be at least a bit hungry after sleeping for so long!"

Allen's stomach chimed in with a loud growl, as if it itself wanted to respond to the finder. The two paused and looked at each other before Allen shrugged it off. "I guess that answers that! I'll be talking to you later, Calera, so don't go trying to hide yourself anywhere! I get lost way to easy to find you otherwise." If he wasn't careful, Allen could end up in Komui's personal labs. And there was no way in any corner of hell that he would be caught alone there.

"Do you want me to lead you over to the cafeteria then? This hall can be a bit tricky to maneuver on." Allen shook his head, pulling on his black boots and leaping up from the bed. "I think I'll be okay, just as long as I find that hall we traveled down yesterday." He paused for a brief moment, before gesturing with his left hand. "It was that way, right?"

"It was the other way ("God damn it."), and now I definitely know I'm leading you. That way trails off into a smaller conference area for finders, you know, the new ones who might stir up a bit of trouble with a veteran exorcist." She grabbed Allen by his right hand as she yanked the door open and strode out into the hall. "But I digress, Jerry must be wondering where one of his main patrons are at the moment! So let's be on our way!"

And so they went off to go get a decent breakfast, only making one wrong turn when Allen insisted that he knew which way to go, but it was an easy thing to just shrug off and lightly tease about, so both the finder and the exorcist considered it a good morning. After they had eaten, another one of the finders, Lucas, as Calera introduced him to Allen, came to inform the man that Komui had just called him up to a mission debriefing, as Allen would be leaving on a mission soon. "Alright, thank you, Lucas, I'll be up in Komui's office in a bit." The male finder trailed off, satisfied, and Allen looked towards Calera apologetically. Looks like neither of them got to try it out, at least not for a while. "Hey, I'll see if I can find you when I get back, okay?"

Calera nodded in agreement, and watched for a small while as Allen sauntered off down the hall, catching Lavi as he passed by on his way to Komui's, and she turned around around as they began to walk off together. '_I can't believe how many finders I know that think of those guys as anything other than human. I hope he makes it back from his mission alright, he, and all the other exorcists around here...well...maybe Master Kanda can get hurt just a bit. But I wish the best for everyone else!' _Besides, she had her own work to complete. Komui made a point of trying to keep her busy enough with helping the scientists and others around the order, but just free enough to, as he put it; 'Find time to befriend my dear sweet sister and keep her away from those dangerous octopi'!

So it was just a waiting game for her to see how long it would take before Allen returned. She was patient, she could spend a week or two in suspense. "Hey Alayna, any new work for me to do around here?" "Oh, yeah, go see if you can help Johnny over there take the new shipment of fabrics up to his room, he seems quite excited about them!" Calera could be patient indeed.

Being around the Chief and his sister (one sort of voluntarily, the other not so much at first, then slowly very much) as much as Calera was, you would think she would have heard of Allen's return as soon as he got back. Well, no. Turns out that as long as you wear the finder cloak, no matter who you talk to, they think you don't care about the exorcists as much as you do. '_This is why some of the finders don't like you guys, people!' _She ended up getting a hint of his whereabouts by accident from an offhand comment of Lenalee's, which transformed into an all out interrogation and shock on Lenalee's part when Calera revealed that she knew, and thought quite well of the snow-haired person. "Sorry, I just thought with how seclusive you were with me at first, you wouldn't have known or cared who he was.." Lenalee mumbled, rubbing the back of her hair absentmindedly.

Calera scrunched her eyes tight for a few moments, before releasing the tension around them and letting out a huge breath. "It's alright, Lenalee. You didn't know I already had met him, and I didn't really bring it up myself. But where is he? He said he'd try to find me when he got back, so if he is home already, where is the 'sprout'?" It wasn't as if Allen would just go back on his word, Toma had huge faith in the fellow, and everything she heard about from him was of honest pacts and...martyrdom. "He's hurt, isn't he?." The finder earned a shrug in response from the other woman. "Just a small bit, compared to what he usually handles. Although it was enough to warrant the Head Nurse keeping him inside of the hospital ward for a small while. I'm sure he'd still want to see you, if you were to visit!"

"But, if I can pry, why did Allen want to find you? Did you guys make a bet or something?" Allen normally didn't just go out of his way to meet up with someone after he got back from a mission unless either he got information, or some reward out of the ordeal. Most of the time, the martyr complex tried to hide from those he talked to just previous of a mission, for of how much he tried to convince them that once, just once, he wouldn't get hurt too badly. So why was Calera so anxious to see him?

"I'd rather not say. Lenalee. It concerns a small hobby of mine, and it was hard enough trying to get him to try it out the first time. When we finished, apparently he liked it enough to want to try it again, as soon as he returned from the mission. I won't say what it is, for my own sake, so I hope you can understand enough from what I explained. Does that make any sense?" The finder winced as she realized she fell into her typical pattern of rushed speech, her main indication that she was scared and trying to hide something. Not something harmful, but something. '_Please don't recognize it, please, just please don't!'_

Luckily, all Lenalee did was cast a slightly suspicious glance over to the finder before she stepped aside. "He'll be either in the ward or in Jerry's kitchen sneaking food, so just go ahead and see him." As the finder slunk past her gratefully, Lenalee called over her shoulder. "But when you get back here, I want a better explanation than 'it was just a hobby of mine'. We both know I get on my brother's back for that sort of thing, and you are dead wrong if you think I'm going to let up on a friend, got that?" It was only too noticeable how calera started, shivered, and gave a thumbs up behind her back in compliance before she rushed off. '_Just what the hell is that finder so afraid of people knowing?'_

Leaping down the flight of stairs that led to the main doors of the hospital area, Calera rushed around as fast as her legs could carry her, wanting to find Allen as soon as possible. Not only to see if he was willing to give the induction word a try, but also to warn him that she might have to tell Lenalee that she had put him under before. What Calera didn't know was that Allen didn't really care who knew what the finder did, just as long as they didn't know how and that all that happened was Allen had slept. Naturally however, the anxiety-prone finder didn't, and so quickly, but gently pulled open the doors to the hall with a bit of worry plaguing her mind.

'_Damn, my arm is killing me!'_ That's what he got for letting a level three get so close so Allen could get a good strike. He had managed to succeed in his plans, and managed to save the life of the akuma's original target before Allen had jumped in! Although now he has to deal with his right arm being broken in 2 different places, and the sting he felt whenever he tried to move the appendage was too much to warrant him leaving the bed for now. For some reason, Allen's mind kept on traveling to what had happened with the finder before he had left, and the bliss he had felt while Calera was speaking. '_I sort of want it right now...if it would distract me from this stupid arm..' _

Just then, it seemed to be extremely lucky chance that Allen noticed the door being shoved open, and a familiar bush of hair striding through, calling his name. "I'm over here, Calera! Sorry, I was planning on looking for you! I just got sidetracked a bit by my non-innocence arm and what happened during the mission!" The annoyance and a bit of distress on the finder's face was quite plain to read, and Allen was quick to apologize. "Sorry about that!"

"No, no, I'm not upset about what happened to you, Allen. Lenalee just gave me a bit of worry, and I might need to tell her what I did with you last time to her." Allen didn't really see a problem with that, as Lenalee was one of his better friends. Not to mention that he didn't really see a reason to hide what had happened, it wasn't like Allen was being embarrassed or had been used back then. All that occurred was his own feelings and his slumber when they were done. "I don't really see a problem with that. However, if I could ask, there isn't anyone around here right now. I..well, do you want to see whether or not that word you set still works?"

Calera raised her forehead, and wiped away a small bead of sweat that had formed during the ordeal. Apparently Allen was either in a ton of pain and wanted some freedom from it, her conversation while he was under was stronger than she thought, or a mix of the two. Her guess was the ultimate former, even though she was certainly willing to try the word just to see its effects. "Just as long as we can make an agreement on something, Allen. Before you go under." She watched as the exorcist straightened himself up as much as he could on the bed, wincing at the pain in his arm before he gazed over to where the woman stood. "I want to make sure about what you're comfortable with me doing. You wouldn't be upset if I set a small trigger or two just for fun, just to play around, would you?"

"There shouldn't be anything wrong with that, just as long as they aren't permanent, and I don't get something too bad." Allen replied. "To be honest right now Calera, if you can make it so I'm comfortable enough to even think about a new thing you could set, I'd consider this little session worth it already." Just because he healed a bit quicker than most didn't change the fact that his arm hurt like hell, and Allen just wanted a little distance from the stinging pain. "Are you satisfied?" Allen felt the corners of his mouth turn upwards a bit more when Calera nodded in agreement. "Fine then, I'm laying back down, if that's okay with you."

"I would have asked for it anyway, my friend." Calera chirped, watching as Allen slowly sank back down onto his mattress, as he nursed his injured arm. '_I guess an akuma makes it hurt more than a normal person can.'_ Once he looked settled, the finder swung her head around, eyes gleaning for any person that could be eavesdropping or just simply walking near. "If you're ready Allen, then all I want you to do is just to _sink and listen_." She made a point to drag out the phrase, and didn't have to spend a long period of time for a reaction from the other.

Allen felt what seemed to be a heavy-set fog encase his mind as soon as she said a few words, although he couldn't quite process what the finder had said. A little confusion lining his face, he vaguely tried pushing away the fog before he felt it grow heavier, and felt as it leeched away the pain in his arm, the bliss that came with the lack of pain. '_So it __wor__ks__...'_ was Allen's last pure thought before his active mind all but shut off, and he laid on the bed listlessly. His head lolled off of the pillow it didn't quite lay on straight, thudding on the mattress heavily.

"And here I thought a word could lose power as time passed…" Calera quietly muttered to herself, making sure Allen didn't catch what she said. Now what to do? She didn't want to do anything that would involve moving his injured arm, so most of the triggers would probably be voice responding, unless she wanted to wait another week or so until he could comfortably move the thing! What did she want to do, anyway? Idly scritching the back of her head, she paced the room, trying to decide on what to ask Allen to accomplish. Suddenly, her body froze, and she turned her head to Allen with a smile. '_That seems like a perfect idea…"_

The finder immediately went to work.


	3. Chapter Three

Before Allen knew it, his eyes were twitching, and he slowly raised a lax claw to rub at them, careful to use the back of the finger. Curious though, his other arm felt less painful, and more just numb now. He supposed that the finder had convinced him to perceive it that way in order to just make him feel better, but now he couldn't use his right arm at all. Sighing, he scanned the room in search of her, but didn't see her anywhere! "Did she just leave me to wake up on my own or something? Oh well, I feel good enough to go grab something to eat from Jerry now, so I guess I'll just head over there."

What Allen didn't seem to realize was Calera was right in the room, barely a foot away from Allen's bedside the entire time. '_Looks like that works perfectly!'_ She happily thought as she slunk off behind the other. '_And besides, I never found out what it takes to be a convincing ghost!'_

It wasn't long before Allen got himself lost once again. The main doors to the cafeteria were only one hall to the left, but of course Allen was sure to turn right, and then many wrong turns following that. What didn't make things any better was that constant nagging feeling that someone was watching, but no matter how many times he turned around, he couldn't see anyone. "If the little ghost girl is back, I'm not ready yet, can I get some breakfast first?" Allen jokefully muttered, wishing that he could finally just have someone show him the way.

Help came in the form of Calera 'gently' grabbing Allen by his shoulders and nudging him towards the right path. They had been walking for nearly a half hour now, and Allen's lack of direction was starting to be more tedious by the moment. "Something wrong, Allen?" Calera asked, voice ringing in the currently empty hall. "You keep on going the wrong way!"

In shock, Allen cringed away from where he thought he had heard the sudden noise, pressing himself against the wall as he looked for any intruders. But the hall seemed completely empty, save for a few flickering lights and one or two finders that stood at the far end of the corridor, casually walking away from him. '_Just what in the hell made that noise? It sounded human!'_

Now Allen was extremely confused. He spun around on his feet, looking for the source of the familiar voice, but couldn't find anything, nor could he bring himself to precisely place where he had heard the voice before. It was nearly as if a ghost was trying to help him, and Allen decided to appease the spirit for now ,although he didn't know exactly why the spirit was trying to help. "I have trouble finding my way around this place, voice. If you know any better path, why don't you show me?" He snapped, crossing his arms and trying to look in the direction where he had previously heard the floating sounds.

"Well, of course I'll help! We can't have someone like you just starve~! Then you won't be able to help anyone!" Calera chirped, relishing Allen's expressions as he tried in vain to find the source of the sounds. Every time he reached or step in her direction, she made sure to step just out of his reach, or his own body purposefully missed her itself. _'Holy crap! This guy really can't see me, it normally takes days of induction for a response this strong!'_

Normally whenever she gave someone a little trigger like this, they would need not only many different inductions to set it in, but they normally still would have been able to see flashes and flicks of her out of the corner of their eyes, before their mind replaced her with empty hall. This complete hidden-ness Calera held was shockingly new, and it felt like a rush to her to know how well Allen could respond, especially from just a trigger! She waved hi to a few of her friends as they walked passed where she and Allen stood, earning a slightly suspicious, but kind glance from the exorcist, and a happy grin from her. The two were quick to just travel on, just brushing off Calera as taking the exorcist on a new mission, nothing new to them (although she had hardly ever gone on one before).

"...Road? Are you the one that's messing with me right now?" The laughter that pealed through the hall made Allen cringe, eyes narrowing in suspicion and a hint of fear. "I swear to god, if you're Road, I'm going to kill you!" He cried, brandishing his claws, although he had yet to activate them. The thought never even crossed his mind to try to when that special, familiar-yet-not sound called back; "Oh, come on now, Allen! I've been following you ever since you walked out of the hospital ward, you really never noticed?" No, he hadn't, and that made him even more upset, wondering just how long whatever was following him was watching on him. '_Who ARE you?!'_

'_Oh, this is PRICELESS.'_ Allen was just getting more and more worked up, spinning himself around like a cat with a string it couldn't catch, swearing obscenities under his breath to the Noah of Dreams. "If it makes you feel any better, the dining hall is just down the hall to your left, you know! You can go get some food!" "As soon as you show yourself! I won't have you pull these tricks on me!" Calera had to agree, the trick was going on a bit longer than she had planned for it to, and Allen needed some food in his stomach sooner or later. "How about this; you go down that hallway, and I'll show you who I am as soon as you reach the end, okay?" Allen stormed off down the hall, just wanting to get the playful 'noah' off of his back as soon as he could.

As he walked, Calera noticed a bright shock of hair peek around the corner, all but too interested in the conversation he had heard. Lavi was confused with how upset Allen was getting, and...could he not see the finder standing less than a foot behind him? The bookman's apprentice immediately thought of possible potions the finder could have snuck from Komui's office in order to use, and decided to continue hiding in the corner to see if the effect worked for everyone, and he couldn't see any person, or if that finder drank some sort of invisibility potion. Besides, who wouldn't want to scare the sprout for once? Coiling himself around the corner, Lavi waited until Allen had reached the very edge, and turned around to stare down the hall, obviously expecting someone. This was when Lavi chose to strike, leaping to tackle the guy to the ground as Lavi heard Calera shout out:

"Glad to get your _ATTENTION_, Allen!"

There was an expansive screech that rang through the corridor as Allen was tossed flat onto his back. Trying to get his breath back, he swiveled his head around to first see Lavi, who was just laughing like crazy about how wound up Allen seemed to be, and then to Calera, who was trying her best to hide a gleeful cheshire grin under a failed look of composure. But when had they ever came up? Wasn't it Road that was annoying him? '_But that voice, it sounded more like'_… "WHAT? You were the one behind all of that? How did you do it?" Allen huffed out, trying to wiggle his way out of Lavi's grasp, earning a tighter hold and one hand reaching out to ruffle his pale hair.

"Do what, exactly? All I did was try to help you find your way back to the dining hall, you were the one that couldn't see a piece of me!" The finder teased. "Maybe I should have bet money or something on this, then you would have seen me sooner!"And as Calera mused, Lavi began to get more and more into the conversation, leaning forward with Allen tightly enclosed around him. Little Allen here couldn't find the finder, and a single word (his guess was 'attention', with how much Calera stressed it as she spoke) brought his sight of her back? '_I think I already know what this is, and if it is, I'm going to be having some fun soon!' _

Lavi couldn't help but chirp in his own opinion. "Hey, sprout! All I was doing was taking a leisurely stroll after a tough mission, minding my own business, when suddenly I hear you swearing and cursing at this obviously innocent," Lavi broke off at the incredulous look that lay on both Calera and Allen's faces before he continued. "Obviously innocent finder! I mean, come on, since when did she ever look like Road? Why were you getting so upset, little sprout?" His voice was laced with false worry, over playing it to the point where it was all too obvious that he was faking. It was worth it to the rabbit, when he saw the maddening look on Allen's face.

"I called her Road because of her tricks she was pulling! I couldn't even tell who's voice I was speaking to, let alone know who was in the room with me!" Allen complained, shoving himself out of Lavi's grasp (without the use of his right arm, even though he still couldn't feel it enough to know whether or not he could use it) and stumbling to his feet. "And I think I already know how she did it, so you don't need to keep prying, Lavi."

"Well, I don't think that would matter much, 'cause I believe I already know exactly what our little finder here could do, even if she didn't have Timothy or Road's powers!" Lavi confidently exclaimed, hopping up himself and looking at the two with a comedic grin.

'_If the Bookman's Apprentice knows and uses it, I'll never be able to live this down...' _She felt a light bead of sweat drip down the back of her neck as she commented; "Well then, Lavi, what did I do?" Oh, she did _not_ like the triumphant glint he held in that eye of his…

"Hypnosis?" Lavi asked. "You know, like that Mesmer guy back in the mid 1700's? I thought he used that for surgeries and stuff! How do you use that to play with our little Allen here, though?" Lavi was a bit confused, but what he did know of the topic was that it was used as a sort of anesthetic, so people wouldn't feel pain or could sleep better, such as what Calera had done during Allen's first induction., although he didn't know she had done that to his friend as well.

Calera nodded slowly, and hesitantly explained; "It's called a post-hypnotic suggestion. If a mind is relaxed enough, you can ask them to do things they might not normally do, and as long as they don't have anything deeply wrong with the suggestion, the one which was put under would likely follow through." The last thing she wanted to do was to explain her actions to the little rabbit, but the matter was now out of her hands. Right now, she'd rather he just learn the mere basics and be satisfied than learn of anything more, something that might put ALlen in a compromising situation.

She looked at Allen's slightly hurt face and felt a tad bit guilty for her actions, although she didn't quite regret them yet. "All I did was give you a suggestion to lose track of the person you were currently looking at and a trigger to fall back under. That's all!" With all of the ideas buzzing through her head, those suggestions were subtle, humble in comparison, although she never could bring herself to use it on another.

Lavi, of course, immediately wanted to know what the trigger was. His years of studying people and conversing with all types gave him information aplenty, but to be able to learn all he wanted about Allen, and be able to mess with him? That was an opportunity he just couldn't pass up! Leaning against the wall and feigning only a calm interest, he let Allen begin to speak, paying close attention to any possible triggering words that either might accidentally say.

"Only those two?" Allen asked. "I guess the sleep one worked like a charm, I was out before I could even think a sentence!" He actually was a bit happy about that. He didn't need to worry about sleep trouble anymore if she could just use a trigger to make him fall asleep. At the same time, it was a bit scary if it worked when other people used the word. Such as the supremely tall bunny that still refused to leave the conversation that Allen wished he was having alone. One wrong word from either of them, and Lavi could end up with just the same amount of control that Allen had.

"Does the trigger only work if you say it, or if anyone says it? It's not anything commonly said or easy to guess, right?" He knew Lavi would try hard to guess what the trigger word was, if it worked when anyone said it. Lavi would probably find it hilarious to put Allen to sleep at random times, and he did not want some of his memories to be punctuated with faces full of food and people claiming that he had turned narcoleptic. "You did make it safe like that, didn't you, Calera?"

Calera started, her eyes widening for a fraction of a second before she regained her composure. '_No, I didn't seclude any of my triggers like that. Well.'_..;"Luckily, it's a multi-word phrase, so unless Lavi's a mind reader, I think you're safe there. No, I never secluded it to just me saying it, so if he were to find out, just come talk to me and I'll fix it." '_Knowing that bookman, he'll just wait until he finds the phrase over golem or behind a closed door himself.'_

Lavi put on a childish pout. "Aw, come on! I wouldn't do that badly as a hypnotist! I promise! You make it sound like I'd put Allen's life in misery!" Misery was far from Lavi's goals. To slightly humiliate and have fun with? Definitely a major push for the apprentice. Misery? Nah, Lavi'd leave that to Allen's normal life, thank you. And although Lavi couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed Calera didn't even manage to give him one easy hint, he could start working on the 'phrase'. '_A casual phrase, one that Calera'd be able to say easily and effectively would likely be only three words long...' _Nothing would stop Lavi from winning the challenge he felt was set by the finder.

"Hey Calera, if you're going to be this rough, at least be so kind as to give me one of the words! Even the last one, I just want to have some help before I get started on my little quest for new knowledge!" Lavi pressed, testing the waters of how, well, innocently naive the finder could be. Behind Lavi's back, Allen made a neck slicing motion with his claw-like hand, before pointing to Lavi, wordlessly screaming for Calera to not give in to the other's pleas.

Calera was starting to wonder if _she_ should have been the one that was given the trigger to ignore. God damn this Bookman junior! "No, Lavi, I'm going to side with Allen on this one. Find the phrase yourself, you sneaky rabbit." SHe would have kept her mouth shut even if Allen had told her nothing. Trying to comprehend the fact that she had to tell one person after this whole ordeal was bad. Giving in and telling someone she didn't even know she could trust was just downright impossible for the woman.

Lavi was a little miffed, but shrugged it off. "Aww, guys! You have no faith in me! I'll have to find out some other way because of you! You guys are so mean to me!" To be honest, he was just biding his time until he could get the obviously annoyed Calera to give a hint. He knew how to push most people's buttons, and got many potions and documents from others for doing this exact thing; hanging around and being an overall comedica asshole until he was able to get what he wanted. "Maybe I'll go see what your twin sister knows, or maybe I'll go see what Lenalee found out from you! You'd be surprised how many people you can leak unwanted information to if they are your friends!

"You do any such thing, and Komui might hear rumors that you are planning to propose to Lenalee." Allen threatened, watching as Lavi's face blanched and he gave a still slightly sly, but more fearful smirk back at Allen, before turning on his heel and starting to walk away. "I'm going to get some food before breakfast is over…" That was his entire point of getting out of the hospital ward anyway, and he could see the dining area from the edge of the hall he had just left. Apparently the finder was right about how to get there, she just wanted to have a bit of fun herself before she let him go. '_If that was what a shy finder could do to me, I never want to see what Lavi has planned.'_

Lavi put his hands up in mock surrender backing away from Allen as the pissed off sprout traveled down the hall."Okay, okay! I'll just go see if the golems around her room heard anything then. Geez, making my life difficult like this…" And so he walked off. Calera, fueled by a bit of worry and annoyance, stormed off towards the science division to go talk to Lenalee. Whether or not rumors were spread would be found out soon enough, so she planned to do what she had promised her friend as soon as she possibly could.

After a lot of wandering, after getting lost _again _('_The dining hall was right there! How the hell did I miss it twice?'_), Allen finally managed to find the cafeteria and eat, greeting Jerry with one of his typical lengthy menu recitals. After his meal (which Jerry managed to cook within record time, a new time of 33.5 minutes, with the help of an assistant cook), he found his way to his room and got ready for the new day.

A few hours passed, and Allen had not seen hide nor hair of Lavi. His paranoia was slowly growing, as he was sure Lavi was up to no good. Obviously, he was trying to figure out the phrase to put him under for Lavi's own entertainment. He sighed. _Why can't Lavi just leave it alone? _

He decided after a small while that maybe he should try to find the curious bunny, to determine just what he was up to, and to put a stop to any _investigations_ the older teen might be attempting. It was only in his best interest, after all.

And yet as soon as both Calera and Allen were out of sight, Calera off to go explain to Lenalee what she had done, and see if she could beg the fast girl to try keeping an eye on the redhead, Lavi ran towards the golems he knew were stationed near the finder's bedroom. Finding one sitting on the chair right inside what he learned to be Calera's own room, Lavi chuckled under his breath. This was going to be far easier than he thought. "Okay guys; let's see what you know…."


	4. Chapter Four

Calera walked down from Komui's office, having finally managing to stammer out what her little 'trick' was, and getting a very decent response from Lenalee. ("That was what you were so afraid of? I think I fear Bookman's acupuncture more than I would ever fear that! But yeah, I'll keep an eye on Lavi for you, just let me see what it takes to distance myself from brother first, okay?'). She walked towards her bedroom, to find that her golem that was assigned to her was missing. Well, Shit. She hoped nothing had been recorded by it… Like hell there wasn't.

Allen was nearly lost _again_, sighing about the mornings events as he vainly searched for Lavi, when a figure with intentions only known to a playful bookman's heart was felt behind him. "Hey Allen! Want to know what the trigger was? Maybe you should have asked Calera to shut off her golem before you two got started!" He could nearly hear the teasing chuckle leave the other's lips before they were even opened.

Allen froze as soon as he heard Lavi's voice behind him. Slowly he turned, glaring at the far-too-playful man. "If you say it, it'll trigger, won't it? So no!" He snapped crossly. "Don't you dare use it on me or I will do awful things to you, Lavi. You know precisely what I'm capable of." He supposed that he could intimidate Lavi into forgetting he ever knew the trigger, just as long as Lavi was intimidated by him in the first place.

"Scary, Allen! Not like I could make you forget I knew the trigger, or anything! Jeez, you need to calm down!" Lavi was planning a huge pot of trouble, but not enough to really qualify as something dangerous. Like Komui's potions!

"Maybe you should relax a bit! Perhaps you should listen! You know…" Cue the smirk of a thousand smiles..."'Sink and listen'?" Lavi watched with glee at the effects, planning more already.

Allen had opened his mouth to say… he hadn't decided yet but it was going to be mean. But when Lavi said that phrase, he stopped his eyes half closing, and his mind all but shutting off as he went back into his hypnotized state. It wasn't as deep as the last induction, but his mind was quickly dropping his thoughts away, and he stood there, finally just as blank as last time.

"Perfect!" Lavi grinned, and leaned forward to whisper in his ear once he saw Allen begin to bend on his feet. "Now, we wouldn't want to attract attention, would we? Allen, why don't you try to act as normal as you possibly can in this state, while following me back to the training hall. I know that's empty right now! And with every step you take, bring yourself further into this state you're in. All the more susceptible to my suggestions. Okay?" There were way too many people here to see Allen now. Let them see him after the triggers were set!

Allen followed Lavi's instructions with a blank look in his eyes, standing straight to follow Lavi. His feet shuffled along the ground, and although Allen kept his head up, it kept lightly bobbing in time to his steps, as malleable as a piece of putty.

Lavi began to walk off; occasionally glancing back to make sure no one was looking at Allen suspiciously. Luckily, Allen just looked half asleep like this, and anyone who didn't know what happened to him thought that '_Oh! He probably just woke up, well good for Allen.'_

If they only knew. "Oi! Allen, try to keep pace with me, would you?" As they had been walking, Allen's state kept slowing him down, and Lavi wanted to make sure the '_poor little Allen' _wasn't left behind.

Allen picked up his pace a little, but being hypnotized and all, he still couldn't go very fast. It didn't make any things easier that Lavi's command was making whatever control he had on himself harder and harder to sustain, and his body began to sway heavily from side to side as he shuffled forward.

Carefully avoiding the odd suspicious person here, giving the quick explanation of a tired Allen to the odd friend they passed, Lavi managed to make it to the training hall without incident. "Sweet! I was right! Good to know that Kanda's meditating right now. Man, I'm sort of glad for how intimidating he can be sometimes!"

He flashed a bright smile at Allen's dazed expression, ready to see what sort of instructions would be fun to give to Allen. The guy didn't look like he was in any condition to fight back against what Lavi told him, especially since he was slowly sliding down the pillar they had luckily stopped next to, and Allen brushed against, naturally leaning against it for support. Lavi would have thought was unconscious if he didn't know any better.

"Kay, Allen? Whenever you hear the words 'Beansprout' or 'moyashi', or even 'parasite', I want you to give the person who gave the comment a kind hug and a soft compliment about them!" Seeing Kanda ready to murder over this would be hilarious! "Understood?"

Allen stayed still and silent as his subconscious mind stored the triggers. He didn't respond to Lavi, not out of rejection, but from his mind being far too deep into trance to even try making a noise or movement without an order. The only sound Lavi got in return was an affirmative sort of whine from the back of Allen's throat as he slid unknowingly down towards the ground.

"No response? Jeez, how am I supposed to know if they'll work? I'd be suspicious that you were faking it if it weren't for earlier, Allen~!" Lavi mused. "Oh, listen here, Allen. Whenever anyone puts you into a trance like this, no matter which it is, you'll forget about being put under, and who it was that did it, unless the person tells you to remember!" _'That way lil' Allen here won't blame me for this, as far as he'll know, I never found it!'_ "When you wake up, you won't find it odd that we're in the training hall, as the last thing you'll remember is me asking you for a spar, and how you agreed before walking over here!"

Knowing now that waiting for a response from Allen was unnecessary, Lavi just waited a moment or two for the triggers to sink in before saying; "Okay, when I count to five, you'll be wide awake, ready to have a fun spar with me! One, two, three, and four…Five!" Cue Lavi quickly backing away, before preparing his hammer for battle, just in case Allen jumped into the fight without warning.

-Meanwhile-

Calera finally located the golem she had been assigned with, flying around next to a table that was full of plates, one of which it tried to duck behind when she realized who probably had the golem last. It wasn't hard to see what happened here. Full of rage, and muttering curses under her breath, she stormed off in search of a soon-to-be skinned rabbit, if she had anything to say about it.

Allen blinked tiredly, and then smiled at Lavi. His eyes quickly regained their normal sparkle, and he pulled himself off the pillar, sliding into a fighting position. "You ready?" he asked, but gave Lavi no time to reply as he activated his innocence, pulling out his sword and dashing towards Lavi with a swing.

"Oh, ye-AH!" Lavi half-shouted, half-laughed as he barely dodged the weapon. Using his hammer, Lavi propelled himself towards the ceiling before swiftly shrinking it, and swelling it again on the descent towards Allen. "I was about to say the same thing!"

It was quite obvious Lavi was out-classes, but he had a few words up his sleeve if things got too tough! That is, if Calera, watching off to the side with a glare and a dark aura to rival Kanda's, didn't stop him.

Allen dove to the side, out of the way of Lavi's hammer. He immediately changed direction, jumping towards Lavi again with his sword. He swung widely; glad he didn't have to worry about Lavi being injured by the sword if he managed to land a hit.

Lavi dropped down below the sword, hair swishing from the wind in the blow, and with a bright grin…Noticed the chick standing near the wall. "….Shit." He didn't know how long she was standing there, hopefully not long enough to hear anything before the spar!

"Oi! Allen! Look, your finder's here!" Lavi called to Allen, trying to sway his attention back towards the fight. Calera was having none of it. "LAVI! What did you DO?!" She didn't hear enough to know what, but it was obvious that rabbit had done something, and she was not taking the blame for it! Allen would never forgive her for doing too much to him!

Allen had been readying another strike, but was interrupted by Calera's shout. He spotted her over by the wall, and looked at Lavi, confused and a bit suspicious. '_Odd, all we were doing was training! When would Lavi have done anything this morning, anyway?'_"What did you do now, Lavi? She looks pretty mad."

"Lavi here stole my golem out of my bedroom, Allen! Who knows what he-"

"What the _hell_ are you doing in the hall?!"  
Kanda had just arrived back from his meditation, cutting Calera's warning short. "This place is meant for training, not arguing with a useless finder over who owns a golem!" He snapped.

"Okay, but this is kind of my"-  
"If you would let me speak, I was going to say-" Calera began.  
"No, no, Yu's right, we shouldn't be arguing like this, Calera! Here, you can have your golem back; I promise I won't take him again!" Lavi responded, voice thick with false apology.

"Better, Yu?"

"Guys, I-"

Now Kanda was getting really pissed off. Why the hell won't these idiots leave?! At the very least, he could goad Allen into a spar or something. Then some training would get done that day. (Along with half the hall getting destroyed)

"You idiots have no clue how to spar properly anyway. Why the hell would I bother trying to push you to learn how to use this place when you obviously can't use it! Isn't that right, Beansprout?" He mocked.

Every time Allen tried to speak, he was cut off by someone else. He settled for glaring at both Lavi and Kanda, until Kanda spoke to him. Rather than his usual negative reaction to being called a Beansprout, his face went strangely blank for a moment, before changing into a warm smile. Allen approached Kanda, and gave him a soft hug before he could react.

"You're so talented, Kanda." He said with an affectionate voice. "Of course you would know how to spar correctly."

"WHAT THE GOD DAMN HELL?! Did you go and get a death wish in the last ten seconds, you damn moyashi? I'll fucking kill you just for- AND LET GO OF ME GOD DAMN IT!"  
The rage emanating from the raven haired exorcist was legendary. Lavi reminded himself that if he survived through the day, he'd have to make sure he wrote down this sweet conversation. Of course, his laughter was a little diluted by the horror on Calera's face, but hey!  
"C'mon Calera, you know that hate gets you nowhere! Just look at Allen, at least he's making an effort to be kind!"

"GOD DAMN IT BEANSPROUT!"

"Just look at how much Allen loves him~!"

Allen hugged him tighter when Kanda shouted that magic word, before being pushed off. "I just wanted to tell you how awesome I thought you were!" he said, half drowned out by Lavi's laughter. When Kanda shouted that word yet again, Allen came in for another hug, still all smiles. "And you are always so brave!" His mind was cloaked in what felt like happy bliss, who cared what Kanda did? He was such a brave guy~!

Kanda couldn't take it anymore. Shoving Allen off, and holding him at bay by an arm's length, he nearly screamed in annoyance; "Do you even HEAR YOURSELF right now, you stupid idiot?! Did that sister-complex give you some sort of drugs to make you stupid or something? You sound like a fucking fool!"

Calera just kept getting more and more angered, careful to note the words that Allen reacted to take away later. Lavi however, was having a great time! Man, did he wish he brought his golem or something so he could show Timothy the effects of this!

Kanda glared over at Lavi, noticing his slightly guilty smirk, Kanda let him know; "I swear to god, if you had anything to do with this Moyashi's rea-STAY THE HELL AWAY! Reactions! You'll have hell to pay!" Kanda shut up after that, seeing if Allen would at least realize what the hell he was doing, and maybe go away. To be fair, this was good training, Allen was trying to get in for a hug with all his strength. But that didn't make Kanda any less pissed off.

"But you're so warm and huggable, Kanda!" Allen said, still with that blinding smile as he tried to hug Kanda again. After a few more moments of struggle, he settled on hugging the arm that was holding him at bay.

"I fucking hate this. I hate you, Beansprout (Calera slapped a hand to her face off to the side, wishing that Kanda would learn just to shut the hell up with the insults), I-GOOD GOD MOYASHI, CUT OUT THE EMOTION-WHAT DID I JUST FUCKING SAY?!….I hate YOU, Rabbit, for being the obvious cause of this, (Lavi raised his hands in playful innocence, knowing that Kanda knew he was the guilty party) and I'm giving you 1 minute to get out of here, finder, before I take my anger out on you as well!"

Calera just shook her head, knowing that arguing with Kanda, especially as the weaker person, was ultimately useless. "Fine, but as soon as you get Allen to leave your presence, tell him I need to chat with him. It concerns what happened last night."

Kanda responded with a glare that Calera would have to take as his best version of a yes before she strode out of the room, punching Lavi across the shoulder as she left, and giving Allen a sympathetic glance.

_"I hate you, Beansprout" _

"And I love you Kanda!" Allen replied, throwing himself again at Kanda, and again being forced back, although he didn't even seem to notice. "You're so pretty even when you're angry." The things he said were getting weirder, but Allen didn't seem to realize how odd his actions were.

"THAT'S IT! FUCK THIS SHIT!" Kanda swiftly plucked Allen off the ground, getting a happy guffaw out of Lavi. Glaring at the rabbit, he quickly strode out of the room and tossed Allen at the finder. "Take this idiot! I'm fucking done training, this day was a waste."

After making sure that the little exorcist was dazed enough not to move, he stomped off. Calera kept her hands around him, and when he made a move to leave, she quickly said; "I'll keep an eye on this Beansprout for you!"

Allen clung to Kanda as much as he could until Kanda tossed him at the girl, hands slipping around as Kanda struggled against him. Before he got over his daze and could follow, Calera said that magic word again, the one that turned his mind into such blissful fuzz. Allen turned around as much as he could in her arms and hugged her instead. "You're so nice." he said in a dreamy voice.

"Yeah, and this nice girl is going to make sure a little rabbit gets his comeuppance for doing this to a moyashi…" Knowing that Lavi could come see what she was doing at any moment, she waited until Kanda was far enough away, and whispered to Allen; "Just sink and listen, okay Allen?"


	5. Chapter Five

"I need you to tell me every trigger Lavi gave you, okay? And while you are under now, only pay attention to my voice. Anyone else's will just fade into the background of your mind, like white noise." She was NOT having Lavi jump in at the last second, and judging by the comical groan behind her, she made the right choice. "Dang it Calera! It was only one trigger! Don't tell me him hugging you feels so bad!" He mockingly whined.

Allen had hugged her again, his compliment muffled as he pressed his face to her shoulder in an affectionate sort of cuddle. He stilled though, his eyes blank as she spoke to him and put him under hypnosis again. His wide smile from the trigger stuck on his face, but was only dragged open a bit from his limp jaw. He fell like a stone against Calera, head flopping onto her shoulder, and Allen relied on the finder to hold him up as his mind shut down once more.

"Moyashi, Beansprout, Parasite." Allen slowly answered. His emotionless tone was a huge contrast to his normally warm voice. His mouth stilled when he was done speaking, causing his tongue to poke slightly out of his mouth.

Calera glared at Lavi. She knew two words were triggers, beansprout and moyashi, but parasite wasn't even mentioned. She glared at Lavi, mouthing choice obscenities and promises yet unfulfilled. Lavi shrugged with a pleased grin slapped on his lips, knowing that his fun was had, and he didn't do anything that was too bad, considering all that's happened.

Calera sighed, and gently told Allen, his body still wrapped up in hers; "Allen, any triggers that were set by Lavi I want you to wipe clear. They won't interfere with your thoughts and actions anymore. Any orders he gave you and will give you slowly fade away. The only trigger that will affect you now is the one to 'sink and listen'."

Lavi knew what that meant. Allen would wake up knowing exactly what Lavi made him do.  
Cue a frightened rabbit rushing out of the room as fast as his long legs could carry him.

Allen's hypnotized mind stored the new orders without a second of fighting, and he stayed slumped against Calera, beginning to slightly drool onto the woman's shoulder, as if in the middle of heavy slumber, although his eyes stayed just barely open.

"Alright. Bring yourself out of your trance as slowly or as quickly as you see fit." Calera removed her hands from around and waited for him to go after the rabbit. She wasn't going to be much use, so she planned to improvise with a Komulin or two once Allen left after the Bookman's apprentice.

Allen blinked sleepily, rising back out of the hypnosis. He looked around, confused at how he ended up in the training room, before his memory came back. His face changed to shock, then to horror, and finally rage.

"Oh my god, please tell me Lavi knocked me out and that was all a nightmare…" he said with a whimper, already knowing that the events in his memory were not a dream."I'm never going to be able to face Kanda again…" he whispered, covering his face.

He was tempted to chase after Lavi and throw the stupid rabbit from the top of the tower, but he had a much better idea of getting his revenge. Rather than chase after Lavi, Allen stood and began to walk in the direction of Komui's office.

"To be fair, you were controlled while in a dream-like state…" She consoled. Calera stretched herself and got up to follow after Allen. Even though Komui would likely believe whatever tale Allen has told him about the rabbit, it would be better for a second witness!

Of course, Calera also wanted Komui out of the room to take a look at the expansive potion cabinets he holds. There normally was a lock on the cabinets when Komui wasn't in the room (no need for a zombie repeat), but her dear sister was able to tell her the lock code in the past. Oh, if Alice knew what she was planning to use it for now!

It didn't take that long to reach Komui's office (Calera had to tell him where to turn only twice, a new record for Allen), and of course, the Chief was asleep, headfirst on a new shipment of paperwork.

"That doesn't make this any less mortifying." Allen answered; glad Calera was helping him with the directions to Komui's office. Once they arrived, Allen sighed at the sight of the napping director.

"Lavi is going to propose to Lenalee." Allen said, making sure his face did not give away his amusement.

"Lenalee!" Komui awoke, crying. He looked around for his precious sister for a few moments before noticing Allen. "Oh, Allen, did you need something?" he asked, assuming Allen was just trying to wake him up.

"I heard that Lavi is planning on proposing to Lenalee. I thought you ought to know so you don't get surprised." Allen said. It took all of his willpower not to grin at the look of horror on Komui's face.

Calera dove off to the side of the door, Komui rushing past her towards the science division at nearly the speed of Lenalee. She stood for a moment, pressed against the wall as papers fluttered around her, before walking over to a cabinet hidden under Komui's desk.

"Hey, Allen, ever wonder what some of the potions can do?" She called; smirking as she deftly undid the lock and gently pawed through the contents. A collection of substances and potions from the past few years stared back at her, each label barely legible in Komui's slanted scribbles. "I for one have been dying to see what these can do!"

-Meanwhile-

"I swear, I didn't say anything to your sister, Chief!"

Cue a giant crash as the arm of a particularly strong Komulin smashed the wall, inches from his leg. "Who told you I was doing it? Lenalee is a friend, that's all!"

"Lenalee doesn't need a repugnant rabbit like you as a 'friend'! You'll pay, Lavi!" Komui shouted in a frenzied rage.

"GOD DAMN IT CHIEF!"

Allen hesitantly approached Calera as she looked through Komui's potions. "I don't think that's a good idea. Some of those are really weird." Allen said, standing on his tiptoes to look at what she was doing, but keeping a safe distance away."I'm ok with just getting Komui to go after Lavi… I don't want to accidentally turn him into a … a newt or something."

"Oh, fine. I just wanted to get my own revenge, and it's not like I could hypnotize him, right?" She honestly didn't even know if someone could be thrown into trance without a pre-set trigger, so that idea was mainly shot. She closed the cabinet and relocked it with a soft click, then turned towards Allen. "Any ideas?"

Allen thought for a few moments. _Something that isn't too dangerous, yet still would be good revenge…_ "Maybe we can do something to get Kanda to chase after Lavi as well?" Allen thought out loud. "We would have to make sure whatever we do, he connects it to Lavi and not me, though."

"You mean other than telling him what Lavi made you do?" Easy enough to see why Allen wouldn't want that. ('Hi there Kanda! Yeah, you know when I was hugging you like an idiot? That was the rabbit's fault, not me!') "Well, we could always try adding some heavy bleach of dye ingredients into his soap. You know, soak the soap until it's squishy, and then add some sort of dye? He'd blame the rabbit for that as long as you left a note~!"

Allen laughed, imagining Kanda with dyed hair. "That's great! Kanda would be sooo mad, though, I worry that he might actually kill Lavi if we did that… What about dying his clothes? We can tell him what Lavi did to me to make him chase Lavi, leaving his room unguarded… I can pick the lock, we steal all his clothes, and bleach them all and dye them pink!" Allen grinned, imagining Kanda with only pink uniforms to wear. "That would be easy enough to fix, so Kanda probably won't resort to murder because of it… but bad enough that he would be seriously pissed. If we leave a note on the top of his clothes that makes it look like Lavi did it, we could just sit back and watch the action!"

"Oh, that's BRILLIANT." she commended. "I'll go tell Kanda what had happened; you might end up getting a bit of anger on yourself if you tell him what happened." Better to let her do it, she might be a finder, but at least she was obviously trying to help the situation instead of being the perpetrator or unwilling problem.

"That way you'll have even more time to get what you need! The dyes and bleaches are right up there, on the right side of that shelf." Calera pointed to a cabinet hidden behind a comparatively recent pile of forms and mission statements. "Good luck, Allen!"

Allen grinned evilly as he turned to the cabinet. He looked _carefully _through the different bottles until he pulled out a bottle of bleach, and the brightest florescent pink he could find. He made his way towards the living quarters, stepping carefully around rubble that must have been caused by Komui unleashing a new Komulin on Lavi. After a few wrong turns, he came upon the hall with Kanda's room. He peeked carefully around the corner, wondering if Calera had succeeded in drawing Kanda away yet.

She swept down the opposite hallway as Allen, in the direction Calera had seen the raven haired samurai travel in his anger that morning. As she sped off, she went over what she was to say multiple times in her brain, just so she was sure that the exorcist wouldn't take out any rage on her instead.

It didn't take long to find him, it was nearly as if he was expecting to be found, snacking on some soba that looked like it had been ordered just a few minutes ago. Calera crammed down any last minute anxiety that was threatening to boil up before beginning to talk to him.  
Five minutes later, Calera was nursing a bruise she had gotten from being thrown to the floor as collateral, and Lavi was being chased down by what looked to be a very crazed chief, a group of scientists trying to calm said leader down, and the killer of all; the swordsman with an aura of pure painful intent. Calera could only hope that would keep Kanda distracted for a long enough time.

Allen, having determined that Kanda was most likely not in his room, got the courage to approach the door. He knocked, just to be sure, but after hearing no movement or cursing in the room beyond the door, pulled a few wires out of his pocket and inserted them into the lock. Suppressing memories of other traumatic situations that called for his lock picking skills, he wiggled the wires in the lock for a few minutes before hearing a click. He decided to postpone his victory celebration in favor of getting in and out of the room before Kanda wandered back.

Once inside the room, he looked around curiously. The room was bare, the only personal item in the room was a flower in an hourglass. He was tempted to investigate this odd decoration further, but thoughts of Kanda coming back and finding Allen in his room persuaded Allen to get right to business. He grabbed the laundry bag that every room was supplied with, and began opening Kanda's drawers, stuffing all of the clothes into the bag.

Calera slowly stood up and brushed her tan cloak off. Well, the bruise was certainly a big one, but she's seen Kanda do worse to finders that were looking for trouble. Sitting down near the soba that was previously ordered, she watched with satisfaction as the red Bookman shouted and rushed through a pandemonium of things trying to harm, kill, or save him. This spectacle was obviously going to last for a bit longer than she thought.  
At least, judging from the fresh Komuilin the 16th that came to the chief's aid. Laughing at the rabbit, she pondered with glee; '_Allen better just hurry up to see this, this is better than anything I've ever seen!'_

Allen dragged the bag of Kanda's clothes down the stairs, looking for the older washroom that he knew was rarely used. Once he _finally_ found it, he filled one of the basins with hot water, dumped the entire bag of Kanda's clothes into the tub, and added the bleach. He decided to let it sit for a while and watch some of the chase going on upstairs. He could hear crashes from all the way down here!

Allen reasoned that it was a good idea to let Kanda see him doing something innocent, like eating, so there was no way he could be connected to the events. The clothes would take a while to dye and bleach anyways, and if he did it all too quickly, Kanda would be equally suspicious of when Lavi had time to pull a prank like that while being chased. So, Allen eventually found his way to the cafeteria. He spotted Calera sitting at a table, and after getting a few plates of dango to snack on, he joined her. As he sat next to her, he winked to let her know he got his part done.

Calera covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hide the victorious grin that laid underneath. Oh, her besting Allen in a bet was fun and all, but little Calera (the male finders often called her that) teaming up with an exorcist to one-up one of the most finder-hated people of the order? Granted, she didn't hate him all to badly, he just looked harsh. But harsh people are also some of the most fun to mess with, and hey! Allen seemed to be having a good time!

The climax of the chase came and went when Lavi got his scarf hooked by the blade of Kanda's sword. With a few (read over 20) pleas to be let go, and that he was sorry, Kanda effectively ended the chase by slicing the rabbit's scarf in pieces as he dragged his sword out from near the apprentice's neck, while causing a last bit of pain by swiftly jabbing the hilt of the sword into the red-heads stomach before he stormed off. Komui was about to take the opportunity for himself, but of course the scientist group had finally managed to catch up and subdue the leader. Kanda slid his way back to his own order of soba, grabbed whatever was left of it (of course Allen snuck a few bites to get on Kanda's nerves, and to say that he was back to normal), and sat half a table away from the duo of the exorcist and the finder.

Lavi was bruised, hurt, and a bit miffed at the destruction of one of his favorite scarves. Slinking past the two, he gave a painful shrug of apology to Allen (followed by a glare in return), and limped off back towards his own library to heal his wounds. Calera watched him walk off before commenting to Allen, making sure Kanda couldn't hear;"Hey! Now we even have a reason why Lavi would have done it!"

Allen smiled at Calera, making sure it was a friendly smile rather than an evil grin in case anyone were to spot him. He munched on Kanda's soba noodles as he watched the conclusion of the grand chase, grinning as Lavi slunk away to lick his wounds. He nodded as Calera pointed out a possible 'motive'.

"He doesn't have an alibi anymore, either. We just have to make sure Kanda doesn't head back to his room too quickly, so there's enough time for Lavi to potentially get in."

"Of course! But how do we distract that guy without getting any more suspicion on our heads as well?" Finders did not last long when being questioned by the sword-happy exorcist. She didn't want to add any more trouble onto her own plate than necessary, especially when it came to that particular exorcist.

"Know any good tricks?"

"Hmm…" Allen's eyes roamed the room until they came to rest on a platter of bread sitting innocently on their table. He smirked as an idea formed.

"I put the stuff in the unused washroom three floors down from here… I might need you to start dying them, if this takes a while." he said to the girl, before grabbing a piece of bread and flinging it as hard as he could at Kanda's head.

The look on Kanda's face as the bread hit the side of his head was totally worth the beating he was probably going to get. "Hey BaKanda!" Allen shouted, smirking. "Fight me!" He waved, and bolted towards the door, heading for the training room. He could probably keep Kanda occupied by fighting sparring for at least an hour.

"Beansprout! I'll cut your stomach open and stuff this bread inside it!" The already-pissed-off-and-now-mad-as-hell exorcist tore off after Allen, swiping out Mugen as he ran. Calera just slipped away from the two and rushed down the flights to the washroom that Allen had described.

Clashes of sword against either metal-like claw or a sword of his own were the background of sound for her as she located the now tan-ish grey clothing as they soaked in the bleach. "Perfect." Calera poured a liberal amount of dye into the clothes, being careful to make sure that none of the bright pink-red water splashed onto her clothes.  
A large crash responded in the bathroom, jumping out of the way of a few stray droplets, Calera gazed up at the ceiling. What the hell was going on up there?!

Allen ran faster when he heard the furious swordsman behind him. He mentally cheered when he spotted the doors to the training room, glad he managed to find it with little difficulty, and ran inside, activating his arm. He pulled the sword out and turned, waiting for Kanda to follow him into the room.

Once Kanda entered, they started a furious battle, Allen teasing Kanda occasionally. After a while, he was sore all over from being tossed around, but he was having fun. And more importantly, he was keeping Kanda occupied. Though the training room was taking a lot of damage, he hoped Komui wouldn't be too mad.

He was starting to get really tired, and had kept Kanda occupied more than long enough for it to be believable Lavi broke into his room. So, keeping a good distance away from Kanda, he deactivated his innocence.

"Phew, I'm hungry!" he said casually. "Thanks for the spar, Kanda." He hoped Kanda would not be mad enough to try to continue to fight.

He knew the clothes wouldn't be dyed and dried by now, but he figured Kanda wouldn't go looking for a change of clothes until that evening after dinner, long enough for him to get the clothes dried and back into Kanda's room unseen. He would just sneak them in when Kanda was eating dinner. _I'll have to make Lavi late for dinner somehow…_

With a condescending smirk at not being the first one to give up, Kanda sheathed his sword, and walked back off to the meditation area. "Fill your black hole then, sprout. At least you know when to admit you're defeated."He swept off into the room, leaving Allen alone in the training hall.

Calera was finally done dying the clothing, satisfied with the near eye-burning shade of neon pink that the clothes had turned into. Hanging them up to dry off, she walked out of the bathrooms, feeling victorious in her mission.

Allen sighed in relief as Kanda left the room with no trouble. He waited a few minutes for Kanda to get far enough away, then ran towards the washroom. He found it rather easily, and poked his head in.

"Oh good, you got the dying done. Once they dry, we got to get them back in Kanda's room. I think probably the best time will be dinner. We have to make sure that Lavi is distracted as well, and not anywhere near Kanda, so that Kanda thinks it was him."

"Oh great. I call distracting Lavi, Kanda is NOT someone I like to talk to." She stated. "I suppose Kanda wasn't too much trouble to distract now, he probably was just glad you weren't all lovey like you were just two hours previous!"

"And Lavi shouldn't be too hard. He normally likes to either eat in the library or I could just tempt him with a new book I got. I know he hasn't read it yet because he was hounding me for it just yesterday!"

"Sounds like a plan!"

It wasn't long before the clothes were dried and folded. Armed with the bag of clothes and checking his pocket-watch, Allen was ready for his part of the plan.

"Ok, Kanda always eats dinner around this time, so Im going to run and put these back in his room, and get down to the cafeteria to eat so he sees me there. You go find Lavi and keep him away from the cafeteria for a half an hour. By then, Kanda will be done and head to his room, so you can let Lavi go eat. Kanda will probably look for him in the cafeteria once he realizes what happened, so you should head down there after you let Lavi go if you want to watch the fun." Allen grinned, he couldn't wait to see Kanda's face!

"Let's go!"


	6. Chapter Six

Allen made his way towards Kanda's room with the bag of clothes, glad he did not encounter anyone along the way. Most people were eating dinner at this time, so there were no witnesses. Allen was glad when he spotted Kanda's door, glad he didn't lose his way and waste time. He looked down either side of the hall, and seeing no one, crouched down in front of Kanda's door and started picking the lock again. A few minutes later, the lock clicked open, and with a silent celebration Allen opened the door.

He wasted no time looking around this time, going straight for the drawers and shoving Kanda's clothing into them. He was doing a bit of a messy job, but he figured Kanda wouldn't be too worried about that fact, since Allen grinned evilly as he turned to the cabinet. He looked _carefully _through the different bottles until he pulled out a bottle of bleach, and the brightest florescent pink he could find. He made his way towards the living quarters, stepping carefully around rubble that must have been caused by Komui unleashing a new Komulin on Lavi. After a few wrong turns, he came upon the hall with Kanda's room. He peeked carefully around the corner, wondering if Calera had succeeded in drawing Kanda away yet.

She swept down the opposite hallway as Allen, in the direction Calera had seen the raven haired samurai travel in his anger that morning. As she sped off, she went over what she was to say multiple times in her brain, just so she was sure that the exorcist wouldn't take out any rage on her instead.

It didn't take long to find him, it was nearly as if he was expecting to be found, snaking on some soba that looked like it had been ordered just a few minutes ago. Calera crammed down any last minute anxiety that was threatening to boil up before beginning to talk to him.  
Five minutes later, Calera was nursing a bruise she had gotten from being thrown to the floor as collateral, and Lavi was being chased down by what looked to be a very crazed chief, a group of scientists trying to calm said leader down, and the killer of all; the swordsman with an aura of pure painful intent. Calera could only hope that would keep Kanda distracted for a long enough time.

Allen, having determined that Kanda was most likely not in his room, got the courage to approach the door. He knocked, just to be sure, but after hearing no movement or cursing in the room beyond the door, pulled a few wires out of his pocket and inserted them into the lock. Suppressing memories of other traumatic situations that called for his lock picking skills, he wiggled the wires in the lock for a few minutes before hearing a click. He decided to postpone his victory celebration in favor of getting in and out of the room before Kanda wandered back.

Once inside the room, he looked around curiously. The room was bare, the only personal item in the room was a flower in an hour glass. He was tempted to investigate this odd decoration further, but thoughts of Kanda coming back and finding Allen in his room persuaded Allen to get right to business. He grabbed the laundry bag that every room was supplied with, and began opening Kanda's drawers, stuffing all of the clothes into the bag.

Calera slowly stood up and brushed her tan cloak off. Well, the bruise was certainly a big one, but she's seen Kanda do worse to finders that were looking for trouble. Sitting down near the soba that was previously ordered, she watched with satisfaction as the red Bookman shouted and rushed through a pandemonium of things trying to harm, kill, or save him. This spectacle was obviously going to last for a bit longer than she thought.  
At least, judging from the fresh Komuilin the 16th that came to the chief's aid. Laughing at the rabbit, she pondered with glee; '_Allen better just hurry up to see this, this is better than anything I've ever seen!'_

Allen dragged the bag of Kanda's clothes down the stairs, looking for the older washroom that he knew was rarely used. Once he _finally_ found it, he filled one of the basins with hot water, dumped the entire bag of Kanda's clothes into the tub, and added the bleach. He decided to let it sit for a while and watch some of the chase going on upstairs. He could hear crashes from all the way down here!

Allen reasoned that it was a good idea to let Kanda see him doing something innocent, like eating, so there was no way he could be connected to the events. The clothes would take a while to dye and bleach anyways, and if he did it all too quickly, Kanda would be equally suspicious of when Lavi had time to pull a prank like that while being chased. So, Allen eventually found his way to the cafeteria. He spotted Calera sitting at a table, and after getting a few plates of dango to snack on, he joined her. As he sat next to her, he winked to let her know he got his part done.

Calera covered her mouth with her hand, trying to hide the victorious grin that laid underneath. Oh, her besting Allen in a bet was fun and all, but little Calera (the male finders often called her that) teaming up with an exorcist to one-up one of the most finder-hated people of the order? Granted, she didn't hate him all to badly, he just looked harsh. But harsh people are also some of the most fun to mess with, and hey! Allen seemed to be having a good time!

The climax of the chase came and went when Lavi got his scarf hooked by the blade of Kanda's sword. With a few (read over 20) pleas to be let go, and that he was sorry, Kanda effectively ended the chase by slicing the rabbit's scarf in pieces as he dragged his sword out from near the apprentice's neck, while causing a last bit of pain by swiftly jabbing the hilt of the sword into the red-heads stomach before he stormed off. Komui was about to take the opportunity for himself, but of course the scientist group had finally managed to catch up and subdue the leader. Kanda slid his way back to his own order of soba, grabbed whatever was left of it (of course Allen snuck a few bites to get on Kanda's nerves, and to say that he was back to normal), and sat half a table away from the duo of the exorcist and the finder.

Lavi was bruised, hurt, and a bit miffed at the destruction of one of his favorite scarves. Slinking past the two, he gave a painful shrug of apology to Allen (followed by a glare in return), and limped off back towards his own library to heal his wounds. Calera watched him walk off before commenting to Allen, making sure Kanda couldn't hear;"Hey! Now we even have a reason why Lavi would have done it!"

Allen smiled at Calera, making sure it was a friendly smile rather than an evil grin in case anyone were to spot him. He munched on Kanda's soba noodles as he watched the conclusion of the grand chase, grinning as Lavi slunk away to lick his wounds. He nodded as Calera pointed out a possible 'motive'.

"He doesn't have an alibi anymore, either. We just have to make sure Kanda doesn't head back to his room too quickly, so there's enough time for Lavi to potentially get in."

"Of course! But how do we distract that guy without getting any more suspicion on our heads as well?" Finders did not last long when being questioned by the sword-happy exorcist. She didn't want to add any more trouble onto her own plate than necessary, especially when it came to that particular exorcist.

"Know any good tricks?"

"Hmm…" Allen's eyes roamed the room until they came to rest on a platter of bread sitting innocently on their table. He smirked as an idea formed.

"I put the stuff in the unused washroom three floors down from here… I might need you to start dying them, if this takes a while." he said to the girl, before grabbing a piece of bread and flinging it as hard as he could at Kanda's head.

The look on Kanda's face as the bread hit the side of his head was totally worth the beating he was probably going to get. "Hey BaKanda!" Allen shouted, smirking. "Fight me!" He waved, and bolted towards the door, heading for the training room. He could probably keep Kanda occupied by fighting sparring for at least an hour.

"Beansprout! I'll cut your stomach open and stuff this bread inside it!" The already-pissed-off-and-now-mad-as-hell exorcist tore off after Allen, swiping out Mugen as he ran. Calera just slipped away from the two and rushed down the flights to the washroom that Allen had described.

Clashes of sword against either metal-like claw or a sword of his own were the background of sound for her as she located the now tan-ish grey clothing as they soaked in the bleach. "Perfect." Calera poured a liberal amount of dye into the clothes, being careful to make sure that none of the bright pink-red water splashed onto her clothes.  
A large crash responded in the bathroom, jumping out of the way of a few stray droplets, Calera gazed up at the ceiling. What the hell was going on up there?!

Allen ran faster when he heard the furious swordsman behind him. He mentally cheered when he spotted the doors to the training room, glad he managed to find it with little difficulty, and ran inside, activating his arm. He pulled the sword out and turned, waiting for Kanda to follow him into the room.

Once Kanda entered, they started a furious battle, Allen teasing Kanda occasionally. After a while, he was sore all over from being tossed around, but he was having fun. And more importantly, he was keeping Kanda occupied. Though the training room was taking a lot of damage, he hoped Komui wouldn't be too mad.

He was starting to get really tired, and had kept Kanda occupied more than long enough for it to be believable Lavi broke into his room. So, keeping a good distance away from Kanda, he deactivated his innocence.

"Phew, I'm hungry!" he said casually. "Thanks for the spar, Kanda." He hoped Kanda would not be mad enough to try to continue to fight.

He knew the clothes wouldn't be dyed and dried by now, but he figured Kanda wouldn't go looking for a change of clothes until that evening after dinner, long enough for him to get the clothes dried and back into Kanda's room unseen. He would just sneak them in when Kanda was eating dinner. _I'll have to make Lavi late for dinner somehow…_

With a condescending smirk at not being the first one to give up, Kanda sheathed his sword, and walked back off to the meditation area. "Fill your black hole then, sprout. At least you know when to admit you're defeated."He swept off into the room, leaving Allen alone in the training hall.

Calera was finally done dying the clothing, satisfied with the near eye-burning shade of neon pink that the clothes had turned into. Hanging them up to dry off, she walked out of the bathrooms, feeling victorious in her mission.

Allen sighed in relief as Kanda left the room with no trouble. He waited a few minutes for Kanda to get far enough away, then ran towards the washroom. He found it rather easily, and poked his head in.

"Oh good, you got the dying done. Once they dry, we got to get them back in Kanda's room. I think probably the best time will be dinner. We have to make sure that Lavi is distracted as well, and not anywhere near Kanda, so that Kanda thinks it was him."

"Oh great. I call distracting Lavi, Kanda is NOT someone I like to talk to." She stated. "I suppose Kanda wasn't too much trouble to distract now, he probably was just glad you weren't all lovey like you were just two hours previous!"

"And Lavi shouldn't be too hard. He normally likes to either eat in the library or I could just tempt him with a new book I got. I know he hasn't read it yet because he was hounding me for it just yesterday!"

"Sounds like a plan!"

It wasn't long before the clothes were dried and folded. Armed with the bag of clothes and checking his pocket-watch, Allen was ready for his part of the plan.

"Ok, Kanda always eats dinner around this time, so Im going to run and put these back in his room, and get down to the cafeteria to eat so he sees me there. You go find Lavi and keep him away from the cafeteria for a half an hour. By then, Kanda will be done and head to his room, so you can let Lavi go eat. Kanda will probably look for him in the cafeteria once he realizes what happened, so you should head down there after you let Lavi go if you want to watch the fun." Allen grinned, he couldn't wait to see Kanda's face!

"Let's go!"

it was going to be obvious someone was messing with his clothes anyways. Once he finished, he put the laundry bag back in the corner he had found it in. He poked his head out the door, making sure the hall was still empty, before closing the door and making sure it was locked. He smirked, and ran halfway to the Cafeteria. Once he reached more occupied hallways, he slowed to a normal pace, not wanting to bring any suspicion to himself.

Once Allen reached the Cafeteria, he ordered his normal amount of food, and added a few extra servings of dango to that so he had something to snack on once the fun started. He chose a seat where he would have a good view and still be far enough away to avoid the blast zone of Kandas rage, and waited. He watched Kanda finish and leave, and slowed down his pace eating slightly, resisting the urge to laugh.

_This is going to be hilarious!_

AS soon as Lavi had finally managed to grab the book and look through the pages, he tossed it back, commenting about it's lack of imagination about the future. "Like hell there would be more than 200 nations, Calera!" With the comment, he slunk off down to the hall to eat, feeling peckish after all that's happened that day.

Calera waited a few moments before rushing downstairs as well, nearly running into Kanda. "Sorry Master Kanda! Chief needed me to get something!" All Kanda did was huff at the weak explanation and continue on his way.

Calera had barely made it down and sat next to Allen when…

_SLAM!_

A tall, hot-pink cloaked man slammed open the door of the dining hall, swearing obscenities and vengeance on the poor rabbit's soul. Calera bent over on the table, trying to hold back laughter that was aching to be heard.

Allen had watched Lavi walk to the window to order his food discreetly, hoping Kanda would discover what had been done quickly so Lavi wouldn't have time to leave the cafeteria. He didn't have long to wait. Calera barely had time to sit down before Kanda stormed into the room, livid. Allen smothered his laugh with a hand, trying to looked as shocked as everyone else.

"He's _wearing_ it!" Allen whispered to Calera. He had never imagined Kanda would actually put the clothes _on_, he had just expected Kanda to continue wearing his old clothes. _Guess he must have put them in the laundry before he looked for a change._

Lavi looked confused and frightened, a reasonable reaction when an angry Kanda wearing hot pink was coming straight for you.

"Yu… what an… _interesting_ outfit you have. Is that a new exorcist uniform design? Love the pink!" He said, his voice shaking a bit in fear, but he was still very amused by the sight.

"You know what you did, you piece of shit!" He all but screamed, causing the entire room to look towards the pissed off exorcist and the scared rabbit. "If this is how you want to say goodbye to the world, you should at least have chosen someone who would have left less of a mess!"

Lavi couldn't understand why Kanda was blaming him, where had he been today that was even close to Kanda's room? The only time he had seen Kanda was when he….Lavi gazed over at the two with the same look on his face as one would get when you realize you left a room full of kids alone with a loaded gun. He was setting himself up for trouble, and now Allen took some sweet revenge.

_I've got to get out of this somehow!_ Lavi thought. "Yu! Wait! It wasn't me, I swear! I was in the library ever since you nearly skinned me earlier this morning, I swear! Ask Calera, she saw me!" _Please don't be in on it, for the love of all that is holy and pure, please…_

"_Sorry Lavi, never saw you_." ….Shit.

Kanda swung his sword out from its sheath, aiming for blood as soon as he started swinging. It was plain that murder wasn't quite in his objective, but damn, if he didn't break anything it would be a miracle. "Mugen, first illusion! Hell's creatures!"

With little white demon insects following Lavi, Calera just looked to Allen and laughed. "This looks like it'll get interesting!"

Allen gave up trying to control his laughter, and was doubled over, clutching his stomach, his eyes tearing up as he watched Kanda chase Lavi around the room. Lavi frantically tried to explain that he hadn't done it, but Kanda was not listening at all.

Allen decided that all the embarrassment he went through this morning was worth it, to see Kanda in pink chasing a terrified Lavi in circles around the room. Lavi kept trying to put tables between himself and the rampaging swordsman, but Kanda kept leaping over or destroying everything in his path.

"What's this about?" he heard someone speak beside him, and managed to straighten up enough to see Lenalee sit beside him with her own meal. She looked amused as she watched Kanda chase Lavi around the room.

"I am guessing Lavi dyed Kanda's clothes pink…" Allen said between chuckles, not wanting to admit his involvement.

"That's what I thought…" she said, grinning a bit. "I do have to admit Kanda looks pretty funny right now… Wasn't too smart of Lavi to get caught though, was it."

"Nope, not smart at all." Allen said, having to stop an evil grin from crossing his face.

Calera piped in; "You have to understand, Lenalee, it's not like Kanda didn't do anything to Lavi this morning! Didn't you see the holes left in the wall by him and that Komulin?"

As they spoke, Lavi was forced into invoking his own innocence, and Calera had to duck under the table to avoid that hammer as it was swung in self-defense. "You'd think he'd be a bit more careful with that thing! Jeez, you'd almost think he was mad at me for something, Lenalee!"

The fight wore on, and as Lavi sustained more and more injuries, he made himself a promise. '_This isn't over, Allen. I know she didn't take the original trigger off ya, and I promise that you'll pay for nearly killing me twice!'_

As Lavi swung his hammer, Allen ducked under the table with Lenalee and Calera. His food, however, was knocked off the table and onto an already furious Kanda. Allen was torn between being upset about the lost dango, and amused as Kanda got even angrier. With a flying leap, Kanda managed to pin Lavi, and forgoing Mugen altogether, hit him over the head, rendering Lavi unconscious.

"That ended quickly." Allen commented as he climbed out from under the table, watching Kanda stalk away with as much dignity as a pink Exorcist could muster. Lavi was collected by a few scientists to be brought to the infirmary, and with that, the excitement was over.

Lenalee shook her head before sauntering off towards the science division to check on her brother, muttering along the way, "Boys will be boys, I suppose. I wonder what got Kanda so worked up to attack Lavi this morning anyway?"

Calera finally calmed down after having gone into silent hysterics over Kanda getting covered with food, and the downright comical look of pure rage he dispelled. 'Oh, that's a face I'll have to remember to tell my twin about!' Gazing over at Allen, she happily commented, "Good work, Allen! Looks like our plan went perfectly according to plan! (Cue girlish chuckle that is a mix of half evil, half alto). I hope he doesn't manage to wake up anytime soon, or he might end up trying to dye your clothes next, Allen~!"

Allen decided he needed to find a way to stop Lavi from dying his clothes in retaliation. He wondered if Lavi was going to attempt any payback. He really hoped not, or he would have to come up with a new plan to get Lavi back _again_.

"Well, today was eventful… I'm gonna head to bed now though." he said, yawning.

"Alright. Tell me if you can't get any rest, alright? I promise that I won't pull anything. This day's been already overfilled with stuff like that already." Calera was planning on seeing how some of her finder friends were doing, and then checking on Lavi to make sure he'd stay in the hospital ward without going after Allen.  
Meanwhile, Lavi woke up, surrounded by both Lenalee, the Bookman ('Damn it') and the head nurse. Plastering on a comedic smile, he boasted "I wouldn't suppose you guys would believe me if I said it wasn't My fault, right?" Bookman responded with a swift smack across Lavi's head. "OWW! Okay, thanks for not just telling me, Panda! Can I at least leave the bed?"  
The head nurse quickly told him off for even suggesting such a feat, and forbade him from leaving the bed anytime within the next two days. Lavi blustered and pleaded against the verdict, but only gained another slap from the Bookman for his efforts. If Lavi planned to get Allen back for this new prank, he'd have to trick the sprout into coming to him.

Allen nodded and headed back towards his own room. Once he found it, he got ready for bed. When he crawled into bed, he was worried at first that he was going to be unable to sleep again, but the day's adventures had done a lot to wear him out, and his body hadn't fully recovered from the weeks of insomnia, so he drifted off easily.

Calera sighed, feeling like she had taken a long mission instead of relaxing, as she thought she would a few days ago. Walking off, she chuckled to herself about how this all stemmed from a little finder like her. But such a thing has an ending, and she was glad that her involvement could end soon, as long as Lavi… Wait… Did she forget something about him?  
Making it back to her room, Calera Sat on top of her bed, wondering what the hell sort of thing could she have forgotten about. Lavi couldn't blame them for the clothes, Kanda is at least sort of distracted from hating her, so what could she have forgotten? She even took all the triggers off, right…?  
Calera slowly fell asleep, knowing that she'd probably remember in the morning, and fix it when she could.  
Lavi had other plans involving the morning as well. He waited until the Head Nurse had gone to bed (he even waited the extra hour to make sure she was deeply asleep), before he carefully made his way to Allen's room, using his hammer as a cane when he needed to. Sitting by the door, he waited for morning with a sly, happily evil smirk on his face.

Allen slept through the night, oblivious to the danger lurking on the other side of his door.


	7. Chapter Seven

Allen woke up a bit later than usual the next morning, his body still exhausted from the days of no sleep. He yawned as he got ready for the day, before opening his door to begin his daily ritual of getting mildly lost on his way to the cafeteria.

Lavi was about to drift off when suddenly the door to Allen's room swung open and caught him on his already far-too-sore arm. Shouting in pain, he grabbed the appendage and swerved his now awake head towards Allen, sleeplessness and pain cementing his plan. Lavi didn't hear anyone nearby, so he quickly said the phrase that he had been waiting to utter.  
"Morning Allen~! Sink and listen."

Allen looked down in alarm as he heard a shout, spotting Lavi sitting in front of his door. "Lavi? What are you—" he started, but Lavi interrupted and Allen went silent, once again falling under hypnosis. His legs bent slightly underneath him, barely keeping him up as his upper half all but melted from the word. Eyes open by only a fraction, they looked into nothing, received no information. Allen was back under just as deeply as ever.

Lavi slowly twisted and worked his way into a standing position, nursing his stinging arm. Looking at Allen, he smiled and said, "Hi there Allen! Mind telling me who dyed Yu's clothes?" He already knew the answer, but he just wanted to hear it from the sprout as he took Allen by the shoulders and led him back into Allen's room, shutting it behind him to prevent prying eyes.

"Calera dyed Kanda's clothes." Allen drawled, letting Lavi guide him back into his room, relying on the red-head to keep him upright. It was technically true, Allen had bleached the clothes, but Calera had been the one to dye them.

Somewhere, Calera shook as she read a page out of the book she was holding. "That's weird, the writing isn't THAT good..", she muttered, deciding to close the book and find out if her worry from last night was correct.  
Meanwhile, Lavi looked at Allen with surprise, saying, "Calera dyed them? Man, you must have really liked that prank in order to place the blame on me instead! But now it's time that she gets her payback~!"  
But what to do to a finder, when all you have to work with is a highly impressionable beansprout? Well…there's always that…yeah, that could work. "Okay Allen, before I give you a little trigger tell me, what do you think a kitten acts like?"

"Playful… mischievous…" Allen answered simply. Questions that called for thinking or opinions were not very good when under hypnosis, and Allen was able to gain a bit of awareness. Not very much, but his blank mind was aware enough to just barely form questions in his head. _Lavi…? What…?_

Lavi wasn't paying attention to Allen's return to reality, just pacing along the room, thinking about a bit of fun to have with the sprout. "That doesn't sound too much unlike ya already, so why not? How about this, okay? Whenever you hear Calera or Kanda talk, you'll become like a little kitten! Playful and just as mischievous as one can be! That'll teach her~!"  
"What do you think of that, little Allen?", he asked as he turned towards Allen's….twitching face? What…?

_What…? I don't… want to…_Allen's mind briefly resisted the order, but he still was not quite aware of what was happening.

"I…. don't…" he said in a confused voice, still trying to resist even as his unconscious mind stored the trigger. It felt a little like trying to ignore your breathing, it still happened even if you tried to stop it, and Allen became a little more frightened by it, starting to try to force himself to wake up.

Okay, that's not good. Lavi didn't know why Allen looked like he was waking up, but it wouldn't be pretty if he did. Lavi needed to bring him back under as soon as possible, before he became fully aware! "It's okay, if you don't its okay. It'll happen anyway, so don't think about it. Just relax, buddy. Just calm down, and if you still want to wake up, just let your conscious mind forget I was ever here."  
'Please work, _please work_ please work…' Lavi worriedly thought. The last thing he needed right now is Allen getting some hits in on his already injured body.

Allen's eyes fluttered for a few moments, and he almost woke up. But a small part of him _didn't want to _wake up. It was so much easier to not think, and not have to worry about anything. It felt so nice just to drop down, and wait to be told. He was told to relax, so after a few more moments, he calmed down, held falling to the side listlessly, completely relinquishing control once more.

"G-good. That's perfect, Allen. Just right back down, not thinking, just listening." he sputtered out, sure as hell That Allen would have been at his throat.  
There was no way in hell he was going to let Allen break free, not yet at least. "Okay, I can't have that happen again, so I'm going to ask you to do something from now on, Allen."  
'_A new command should help out with this!'_

"Whenever you feel like your mind might break out on its own, or that you need to think too hard about something in order to answer, just let a piece of your own mind tell you to 'sink and listen', and you'll just bring yourself farther down into this trance. Let the thoughts that plague your mind fall away, and just drop down even deeper than ever."  
Now to test how that worked. "Hey Allen, what would you do and say if I dyed your hair purple like Road's? Be sure to be as descriptive as possible~!"

Allen's mind started to wake up as he tried to answer, his head starting to shiver with the effort it took to speak, and think about what the hell he was doing at the same time. Then he heard in his head, a small voice saying; '_sink and listen'_, and instead he followed the previous command to fall deeper into the trance. Doing so, he just stayed silent instead of answering, body slowly folding on itself like a limp ragdoll, splayed out on the bed he was on. Surprisingly, the whole time Allen's eyes stayed open, just barely closing more when he dropped farther.

Lavi chuckled under his breath as he watched Allen's eyes, if anything, just barely break the surface of his trance before his eyes became even more distant and unfocused. "Well, that answers that for me!", he happily chirped. With Allen like this, he wouldn't have to worry about him waking up anymore! But, someone was bound to check on the sprout soon…so perhaps it's time he takes his leave and waits for the fun.  
"Allen, when I leave this room, you will wake up from your current trance. All of your memories of me during this morning will be locked away, and the last thing you'll remember of me will be of myself being dragged away to the hospital ward."  
He knew Allen would be heading off to the cafeteria soon after he woke up, so Lavi decided to meet him there, perhaps with Calera, if he could find that finder. Gleefully smirking at his own future pranks, along with the one already in motion, he swept out of Allen's room, closing the door behind him with a resounding '_click_'!

Allen blinked as he returned to reality. He looked around, confused. _Didn't I just open the door? _He stared at the closed door for a few seconds, before shrugging and opening it again to step out. _I'm probably still tired…_

He made his way down to the cafeteria, and ordered himself a few dozen sugary breakfast dishes. He hoped the sugar would help wake him up more.

Before Allen walked over to Jerry, Lavi spun his head around the room, gazing at everyone to see if he could find one of…there's that finder! Springing over to where Calera ate (she must have forgotten to check on Allen again in favor of a good breakfast, damn her short term memory must suck) and grabbed her by the shoulders with a playful "Hey there girl! What's one of the playful finders doing just sitting here when you could go talk to Allen or Yu?"

Calera nearly choked on her food, before gagging it down with the sudden realization that he knew who was responsible for the prank. "It-it wasn't only me, Master Lavi!"

Lavi countered, "Sure it was! Sprout told me who dyed the cloaks!"  
Okay, what? Why would Allen tell him anything, and why throw her under the bus like that? Turning to see Allen sitting down at his own table, she hopped up to go speak with him, expecting an explanation from the white haired guy.  
Lavi gleefully watched her storm off, thinking only on how beautiful this will be.

Allen had brought his breakfast to the table and had started devouring it when Calera approached him. He looked up, and noticed she had an odd, almost angry expression_. 'I haven't seen a finder this angry or upset since Chaoji.'_

"Hi Calera, what's up?" he asked, a bit worriedly.

Calera just sat down next to him with a heavy huff, and began to rant exorbitantly to the white-haired boy.

"Allen, you threw me under the bus! I can't believe you would do that to me! What the hell is your-WHAT THE HELL?"

Allen had no idea what she was talking about… so to shut her up he took a fruit pie that had been in his pile of food, and smashed it in her face. He started laughing at the expression on her face as the pie fell into her lap.

"I don't know what you're talking about." he said, still snickering.

Wiping the stray syrup away from her eyes, Calera glared at Allen with a look of shock and pure anger. Warm, flaky crust piled into her hair, and she shook as much as she could out of her soon to be very fluffy mane as she shouted;

"What the hell, Allen?! You just shoved a freaking pie in my face, and you still have the nerve to say you never spoke with Lavi? What the damned world did you do, then?!"

Allen's mouth was full of pancakes as she shouted at him, getting crust crumbs all over him as she shook it out of her hair. Since his mouth was still full so he couldn't answer, Allen put a pitcher of pancake syrup on her head upside down like a hat. He swallowed, and gave her a confused look.

"I haven't seen Lavi since he was taken to the hospital ward yesterday. When could I have talked to him?

….Oh if she wasn't a finder she'd punch Allen straight through that condescending smirk of his! He's acting like a kit That doesn't know when to stop knocking over that cup of water you were trying to drink!

Taking off her glasses to wipe them off on her cloak, which soon turned out to be futile, she glared at him with all the rage she could muster, feeling her head already grow crusty from the drying syrup.

Lavi thought this was a ball. He honestly didn't care anymore if Allen was part of the prank, Allen would be in enough trouble from Calera when this was over anyway! Oh, the wonders of the powers he holds! Just as long as she doesn't realize that…

…Wait. Last night. Calera's face turned from one of anger, to one of thinly veiled pure murderous rampaging fury. She knew what she forgot. And if she was right, the rabbit had hell to pay. "Never talked to Lavi, huh? Did you see anything change suddenly, when you woke up? Like you were in another place-"

Cue her mental screams of frustration at Allen and Lavi once more.

Allen casually knocked over a glass of water on the table, so it would spill into her lap.

"Actually I did notice something weird. I thought I opened my door to head to breakfast, but then next thing I knew I was inside my room again with the door closed." he said thoughtfully, putting a finger to his chin and acting as if he hadn't done a thing.

"OH MY GOD!" Calera shrieked from the sudden rush of cold on her lower stomach, brushing whatever water there had been on her lap onto the ground, and glaring at Allen as well as Lavi as best she could. '_When I put an end to this, I swear to go Lavi, your soul is MINE.' _

Scrunching her eyes together for a moment to keep her composure (whatever was left of it, at least), she gritted her teeth, and stared down Lavi as she harshly muttered;

"No wonder. You do realize that you aren't acting yourself, right Allen? Why don't you just _try_ to eat your food, and not choose that my body is a better place to put it! Is that so hard?"

Lavi just gave Calera an innocent grin. After all, until she got a chance to put him under, he was safe! And there was no way she'd do it in a crowded hall! The rabbit just stuck out his tongue at the finder as he stretched his arms back, faking his indifference to the scenario.

"Hmmm… maybe." Allen said simply. He felt the unshakable urge to be a mischievous brat, so he picked up a slice of cake and threw it in Lavi's face. After all, since Calera already was covered in food it wouldn't be as fun to add more to it. Much more fun to move onto covering Lavi in food.

"What the…HEY!" Lavi recoiled back as the cake splattered across the left side of his face, blocking most of his nose and eye-patch. "No fair, sprout! I wasn't thinking you'd do it to me too!"

Calera smiled a bit, at least Lavi got some comeuppance for this disaster. But her patience was wearing thin, and Allen needed to get over himself and actually freaking eat for once! She looked around ashamedly, knowing that whoever was watching this fiasco would be privy to her fixing the situation as well. "Lavi, you son of a bunny, I'm going to kill you after this, you know that, right?

…..

"…Yeah, figured."

"What are you talking about?" Allen asked, not able to follow the conversation at all. He wondered what Lavi meant by '_not thinking he'd do it to him_' as he placed a pile of pancakes on top of Lavi's head. Allen was sure he wasn't doing anything wrong! Everything seemed completely normal, all he was doing was having a bit of fun!

"Heh, a bunny with a pancake on its head…" he said, giggling at the idea.

Lavi felt one of the pancakes slowly slide down and cover his good eye, before he grabbed them off his head in a huff. "I'm not a rabbit, Allen! Jeez!" It was still hilarious to him, but with Allen messing with Lavi as well, the rabbit couldn't help but feel like his revenge attempt messed up by quite a bit.

Calera was just getting more and more confused and frustrated the more Allen wasted his food. If he needed to eat it, then he should have a chance to eat it! "Rabbit, I'm going to bring him out now. If you think your life will be in danger soon, you might want to run for it."

"Really, in public?" Lavi teased. "I've noticed your anxiety, you hate doing ANYTHING personal in public, this hobby counting! Think you have the guts to really do it."

"I swear to god rabbit, I will. He doesn't deserve this." (Yes he does, but there is no way she is going to admit that.)

Allen was in the process of attempting to dump a plate of scrambled eggs down Lavi's shirt, when Kanda suddenly appeared, holding a tray of soba.

"What the hell are you doing, stupid Sprout?" he asked, looking at Allen sitting in Lavi's lap trying to hold his shirt open to dump the food down. His gaze moved to Calera, covered in various liquids, and when his attention was elsewhere, Allen reached over and hit the bottom of Kanda's tray, causing the whole thing to flip backwards and cover his shirt in broth and noodles.

Calera froze, along with Lavi, just staring at the massive hell Allen plunged them all into. Lavi didn't even feel the food run down his shirt, his eyes wide and gazing at the soba-covered demon. Jumping up from his seat, Lavi quickly bid a goodbye to them all before rushing off and using his hammer to get some distance away from the nightmare.

Calera had no such luck, just giving a soft gulp and hoping that the samurai wouldn't kill the finder.

Kanda however, was immediately thrown from as nice of a curiosity as possible into a monster with a hunger for the beansprout's blood. A dark aura seeped from him as he shouted fury at Allen, swiping off the still hot noodles and broth before swiping out Mugen.

"You are dead, sprout! Do you understand me?!"

Allen fell to the ground as Lavi jumped up and ran. He rubbed where his head had hit the table, wincing as he straightened up. He looked up at Kanda, wondering what on earth had made him do that. Kanda looked ready to have beansprouts for lunch.

"Ah… Umm… Hi Kanda?" Allen said, moving slowly to stand, fearing any fast movement would set Kanda off. Kanda spoke before he could back away from the table, and hearing his voice, Allen impulsively grabbed a piece of the uneaten cake, and shoved it into Kandas open mouth, getting it all over his face.

"You should try something sweet for once!" Allen said, smiling brightly.

Kanda was about to yell some very curse-heavy choice phrases at Allen, before his throat was clogged with the taste of cloyingly sweet sugars and soft, sticky batter. Bending over involuntarily, his body began to cough out, and finally spit out the pieces that were lodged.

As soon as his body had stopped coughing, he rushed over to Allen, grabbed him by the collar and yanked him from the table, hanging his body in the air. Evil intent pouring from his face, he glared at Allen and all but screamed;

"I will slice off your neck and let your golem eat you! What the hell is wrong with you, Sprout?!"

Calera just tried her best to sink into the table she was sitting at, knowing that telling what happened to Allen was about as good as trying to tell a Noah why she was holding innocence. There wasn't even anyone she could blame this on! It was like he was drugged….that's it. Oh, the Chief is going to penalize her heavily for this, but if it helps keep damage away from the truthfully innocent Allen (barring the prank the day before) it was worth it to her.

Allen squeaked as he was lifted off his feet, fearing for his life and wondering if he should activate his innocence to escape. '_Why is Kanda so upset all of a sudden? I better activate.. .' _However, Kanda started shouting at him again, and in response, he leaned forward and licked some of the icing off of Kanda's cheek, a teasing glint in his eye.

"Hmm, that's pretty good." he said, before grabbing Kanda by the collar in an attempt to kiss him to taste more of the cake. The urge was from his mind insisting that it was the most hilarious and mischievous thing he could do to the taller exorcist at the moment, so of course he needed to do it now. It was only natural for him, right?

Kanda fought against the shorter exorcists hand-and-claw, ripping off a bit of his collar in the struggle, Allen had just barely touched his lips before something in Kanda broke, and he toss Allen directly onto the floor with as much ferocity as he could muster. Drawing Mugen, he planned to make the sprout's end quick before…

"Fucking hell! Get out of the way, finder!"

Calera had thrown herself in front of Allen, and felt deep relief that Kanda was still sane enough not to kill her on the spot. "Master Kanda, Allen isn't himself right now! Lavi had tainted his food with another of Komui's potions!"

Kanda squinted his eyes, and looked down at Allen with a mixture of disbelief, mainly rage, and slight hints of new fury for the rabbit. "Like hell! What sort of potion does that?!" Kanda shouted, pointing Mugen directly at the finder's face.

Allen winced as he hit the ground, hitting his head _again_. He lay there for a few seconds, dazed, before noticing Calera standing above him, defending him from Kanda. He was temporarily surprised at her bravery, before he heard them both speaking again. His mind tried to come up with a way to cause mischief without making her get injured with the sword in her face, and he decided to grab her around her waist and pull her down beside him to tickle her.

"He was given a potion that would make him more play-AHHHHH!" Calera shrieked. feeling a pair of hands flop her down onto the ground. With the wind knocked out of her, she laid there for less than a second before those same hands reached for her, and Allen began to harshly tickle her sides.

'D-damn it! Allen, I'm trying to help you!' She thought, and still tried to explain to Kanda what happened, even though her voice was so shaky and a involuntary shriek of laughter would escape. "Playful! it would make him more pmi-mischievious a-ahaha! And playful! ALLEN!"

Kanda just stood there. He's been the victim of potions before, and something like this was easily within the sister complex's range. '_I'm going to SLAUGHTER that rabbit!'_ He decided, watching the finder get mercilessly touched by the sprout. Oh, of course he was still pissed as hell at Allen, but fighting him in this state wouldn't be very satisfying, and he'd likely kill the sprout too quickly.

Allen continued to tickle the girl as Kanda walked away silently. Allen didn't pay him any mind, nor did he care about the stares they were attracting, or that he was getting sticky stuff all over his hands. The only thing on his mind as he heard Calera's voice among the laugher was to _keep tickling._

Too much, this was too much! Calera couldn't get out of the exorcist's grasp, not from lack of trying, but from the sheer strength he held even as he harshly tickled her body. Laughter was erupting from her lips, and her eyes were moist from laughing so much.

She couldn't focus on the crowd, and her frazzled, sticky, food colored body couldn't take much more from the white haired man. _'I-I can't do anything like this! I'm so sorry, Allen!_' Was the only broken thought she managed to piece together before she all but shouted;

"A-ALLEN! SINK A-AND LISTEN!"


	8. Chapter Eight

Allen immediately stilled, his face going blank as his mind sank back into the trance. His hands that were previously roaming her body for a good place to attack next fell dully onto the floor, head emitting a soft thud as he flopped backwards, hazily gazing at the ceiling. His conscious mind was shut off once more, and Allen became the malleable plaything that he has been forced to be for a while.

Calera immediately took a deep, greedy breath, steadying her mind and body. The realization of what she had done shone on the face of nearly every person who had witnessed the feat, including the black-haired samurai who had yet to leave the room. A deep blush glowing on her cheeks, she slowly got to her feet, pulling Allen up alongside her.

Kanda watched the scene for just a second longer before swooping off, documenting the odd, sudden phrase in his mind. He'll question the sprout later about that one.

Calera turned to Allen, and hastily spoke in Allen's ear. "Allen, any commands Lavi gave you will not affect you any more…Now, wake up as quickly as you can, please!" The crowd slowly began to disperse, having not heard Calera's speech, they chalked the odd incident up to Komui or to Lavi as she had been screaming about before.

Allen woke up and blinked, looking around him slowly. His mind was still slowly clearing away whatever had been cloaking it before, and Allen couldn't yet process what had happened.

"Um… what was I doing…" he looked confused, staring at Calera covered in food, and his own sticky hands and arms. '_I know I was just eating, but then…'_

Wiping a stray berry away from her neck from the fruit pie, Calera responded with an almost frighteningly forced calm, as to not attract any more attention than necessary. "Lavi found you, used you, and now half the order saw you cover a finder in different foodstuffs. Is that enough to make you remember, Allen?" The syrups would take days to completely wash out from her hair and skin, along with Allen's own from having such close contact with the liquid-coated finder.

Allen's expression slowly turned more and more horrified as he remembered what he had done. "I'm sorry… I can't believe I… oh my god… and Kanda-! I'm a dead man…" he stuttered as he spoke, his cheeks turning red as he remembered how he had been acting. "I'm going to kill Lavi…"

"I'll help you with that!" She muttered, just wishing to get away from the (quickly dispersing) crowd and find out how to exact revenge. Although there was one task Allen and the finder should probably take care of first… Motioning to her hair and body, she mumbled, saying;

"…As soon as we both get these sticky sauces off of us."

Allen nodded in agreement. "Probably he is busy being chased by Kanda anyways, for the moment." he said, before walking away from the cafeteria. He hung his head, his cheeks flaring red as he noticed stares and whispers of passersby about the state of his clothes, and probably about the scene in the cafeteria.

_I can't believe Lavi did that. I will make rabbit stew out of him. And then share it with Calera. And then I'll have to run from Kanda… ugh._

He scowled as he thought of all the different ways to prepare rabbit, heading towards his room to pick up a change of clothes before taking a much needed shower.

Calera did the same, only pausing for a moment to smack her own golem (it was the cause of all this madness anyway), and to swipe off a stray brush from her desk before storming into the female baths. Normally, she didn't pay too much mind to the fact that with so few females working here, the baths on her side stayed secluded (probably to Komui's delight as well), but today she relished it.

It took her nearly 45 minutes to tease all the crumbs and most of the sauce off of her body and hair, and she dejectedly let the rest lie until she could attack the food again later. '_That rabbit deserves something horrid…'_

Calera did the same, only pausing for a moment to smack her own golem (it was the cause of all this madness anyway), and to swipe off a stray brush from her desk before storming into the female baths. Normally, she didn't pay too much mind to the fact that with so few females working here, the baths on her side stayed secluded (probably to Komui's delight as well), but today she relished it.

It took her nearly 45 minutes to tease all the crumbs and most of the sauce off of her body and hair, and she dejectedly let the rest lie until she could attack the food again later. '_That rabbit deserves something horrid…'_

Allen grumbled as he washed himself up, taking a longer time than usual because he didn't want to go back outside the shower stall and face everyone who had seen him acting like that.

_I kissed Kanda in front of half the Order! I'm going to need to move to the Asian branch…_ A part of him wanted to cry. Most of him wanted to kill Lavi, and then hunt down Kanda and all the witnesses and whack them on the head with his Master hammer and make them forget this morning had ever happened.

_I am never ever messing with hypnotism again. This was not worth the sleep… _

Donned in a new cloak, Calera strew a hand through her mainly food-free, soaking wet hair as she trudged through the halls, looking to just find something, or somewhere to hide to plot what to do to a rabbit. Turning a corner, she nearly ran right into the black-haired samurai. Ducking her head out of the way and muttering a quick apology, Calera tried to walk away as fast as she could.

"What the hell was that phrase you said?" Kanda growled as Calera tried to sneak by, causing Calera to freeze up for a moment in fright.

"What one, Master Kanda?" She asked, fear tinting her voice.

"That phrase you screamed! Don't act fucking stupid!" Kanda verbally lashed out, tone demanding a solid answer.

"A-ah, well, it was just something that I yelled in a moment of panic, Master Kanda! It did-didn't really mean anything!" Calera managed to stutter out, picking up her pace, rushing off before Kanda could try to question her further. He wasn't satisfied, she knew that, but the last thing she wanted to do right now was talk about what happened. All Calera wanted to do was find Allen and go teach a rabbit why he shouldn't hop into trouble like he always does.

Allen finished washing up and quickly toweled himself off. He dressed in fresh clothes and brushed his still-damp hair before deeming himself presentable. He poked his head out of the door to the baths, glad the hallway was clear. He would rather just go lock himself in his room for a while than have to face anyone. He made his way towards his room, hoping to get there undetected, but turning a corner he bumped into someone.

"Ah, sor—" Allen said, before he looked up. His eyes widened and his voice cut off for a second. _What did I do to deserve this?_

Kanda stood in front of him, glaring down at the sprout. Maybe he could get some answers now.

Kanda glared down at the slightly cowering sprout. Denied any sort of viable answer from the finder he had previously interrogated (who couldn't tell she was hiding something, really?), he was lucky enough to find the very same exorcist that had not only been affected by the phrase. but had made Kanda into a fool at the dining hall. It was about time he found some answers.

"What the hell was that phrase the finder used? And how the hell did it affect you, beansprout?" He ferociously spat out. Kanda's tone dripped with anger, and he obviously was not in the mood for the half-answers Calera had said to him before.

Allen backed away, laughing nervously.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Kanda…" he said with a strained smile, his mind racing to find a way out of this situation."I was being affected by one of Komui's potions, like Calera told you." '_Please don't say it, don't, just don't…I need to get out of here!'_

He decided the best way to get out of this situation was to run. As much as he hated the idea of appearing scared of Kanda, it sounded like Kanda had heard the trigger phrase Calera had used to make him go back into hypnosis, and he had already had enough problems with Lavi knowing the phrase. He didn't want to imagine what Kanda would do if he figured out what it could do. So, he turned and began sprinting in the opposite direction down the hall.

Lies. Easy enough to tell, with the way Allen became so upset so easily. Kanda narrowed his eyes in fury as the exorcist turned to flee. Like hell Allen was getting away that easily. _'That phrase got him to stop moving, maybe…'_ It was worth a shot. It would give him the answers they denied verbally, at least.

"Sprout!" He growled, starting to chase after (although he probably won't need to for long). "Sink and listen!"

_Oh shit._ Allen started to run faster when he heard Kanda chasing him, but upon hearing that phrase, he stopped, his eyes going blank. His body slumped against the wall, as it couldn't set any sort of balance from the previous step from Allen's run. Allen's last thought before everything that was exactly him was pulled back down into nothing was 'He said it ….'

That seemed to work well enough. Allen wasn't moving away anymore, but why the hell would he just stop for a few words? "Sprout!" Kanda jeered, slightly bewildered by Allen's vacant expression. "What the hell does that phrase do to you? He walked over to Allen and bent his face down to look at the entranced ones. _I'm going to get an answer out of this guy, right? This bastard doesn't even look like he knows I'm here._

"It's a hypnotic trigger…to put me into a trance state." Allen answered simply, his eyes still blank as he stared ahead. If it weren't for Allen's hesitantly moving mouth, you would think that the guy had just fallen unconscious while standing up, and the way Allen's mouth stayed loosely open afterwards certainly helped the illusion.

_Trance? The only time I heard of that was when the sister-complex wanted to use a potion to induce that on someone. That can control the sprout?'_"Hmph. You say that, but I don't believe you, sprout." Kanda was certainly suspicious of this. Allen wouldn't let himself be controlled by just anyone, and it seemed far more likely that he was just faking it to avoid telling Kanda a real answer.

"You're such a god damn idiot, sprout. Tell me how many times you were put under, then!"

"Six..." Allen answered, hissing a bit more on the s's than he usually would, if he could actively control his speech.

_What the hell was this guy on about…wait._

_What happened a few days ago._

The fucking training hall.

That must have been…

Kanda's face lit up in dark realization, before an evil grimace, a sort of hybrid of a scowl and a grin crossed his face. "Damn it, you must be able to be pretty easily controlled, beansprout."

"Fine then. When you get out of this…trance, then, every time you even think of running or fighting against me, you'll immediately have those feelings replaced with an uncontrollable urge to follow any order I give you for about one minute. You won't remember me giving you any commands. If you understand, just go ahead and wake yourself up." '_A good way to test if he's not faking it, and a good way to see just how far this will go.'_

Allen blinked and looked up, seeing Kanda standing in front of him. This didn't feel like the relaxing pull Calera lets him do to himself, so Allen quickly knew that this wasn't someone he should have fallen under around.

_What..?_ His eyes widened in realization of what must have happened, based on the fact that last he remembered he had been running from Kanda. Allen was not stupid, after all, and this had already happened enough times for him to get the picture.

"You… you…" he stuttered, both furious and frightened. "What did you do?"

He wasn't sure if he wanted to run away or kill Kanda, but both of those thoughts met the conditions of the trigger…

"Tch, not like you'd care anyway, sprout. Why don't you just stick your hand to your mouth and just shut up for a while. Stick near me too, I want to see your anger." Kanda commanded.

It wouldn't last long, so Kanda wanted to try something simple first, just in case it wore off too quickly.

Allen immediately clamped his right hand over his mouth, still glaring at Kanda. He stepped a bit closer to Kanda. '_Why am I following what he's asking me to do? Did he really put that command on me? That bastard!'_

Kanda just looked towards Allen with an outwardly bored, inwardly dastardly pleased expression. "What's the matter, Sprout? Can't talk? Try speaking with your mouth held like that."

'_That rabbit should know not to mess with me, but doing this to the sprout…might be interesting.' _

There was no way in hell Kanda would assume that the finder had been involved in any actual way.

Allen tried to speak, but his words were muffled behind his hand. He glared at Kanda, even though he was under control he still had enough of his head to be mad, though at the end of the minute he would completely forget about _why_ he was mad.

"Well, that sounded humiliating." Kanda muttered, all too pleased with himself.

"You sounded like a dog begging to be set free! Well, why don't you act the part as well? Act like a dog, beansprout."

All throughout Allen's actions, Kanda kept his mostly typical smirk, only slightly hinted with feelings of evil joy by these events tinting his expression. If someone were to walk up, he could easily push off Allen as just acting weird or trying to anger the stoic exorcist.

Allen gave a muffled 'woof' as he kept his hand over his mouth, since he still had to follow _all_ of the orders given. '_Looks like I still have a semblance of control for myself too, thank god.'_ He still had control over _how _he fulfilled each order though, so the sad 'woof' was all that he would give.

"Take your hand off your face, I can't hear your pitiful attempt, sprout. Try harder this time, surely you're a better clown than that." Kanda teased, readily accepting the challenge Allen gave him. It felt sort of like a twisted mind battle, even if it won't last long.

Allen took his hand off his face, and growled at Kanda, his face twisting in an angry snarl.

Kanda just smirked back, eyes glinting with well-hidden mirth. "Sit next to my side and heel, puppy. No biting or scratching, you haven't been declawed." Kanda mocked. He knew the time was about to run out, so might as well make the sprout all the more confused when Allen broke free of the trigger.

Allen sat down next to Kanda, pulling his knees to his chest and hugging his legs. It wasnt how a dog would sit, but that was the intention. A few seconds later, he blinked and looked around. "What the…" he said, wondering why he was sitting on the ground, and noticed someone beside him. He looked up and saw Kanda smirking down at him. _FUCK!_

He jumped to his feet, backing away from Kanda. "You… are such an ass Kanda!" he yelled, realizing Kanda did something to him _again_ and turned and started to run away, hoping to escape this time before Kanda could do something _else._

Like the sprout would manage to run that far. Kanda was more than pleased with Allen's reaction, and was certainly curious to see more from the smaller exorcist. "Walk back here, sprout!" Kanda called, knowing the time had been renewed. And judging by this, Allen might end up getting the time renewed for quite a long time.

"You fell for it again, Moyashi…"

Allen started walking back. Veeeerrryyyy sloooowwwllyyyy, aiming to ignore and annoy Kanda as much as he could while he was stuck like this.

Kanda felt himself twitch in annoyance, the parasite knew what Kanda meant."Run back here, then! And when you get back beside me, tell me something you would want to do _least_. That doesn't include murder or sexual activity." Even Kanda had limits when it came to the sprout, he was not going to deal with the aftermath of something that sinister.

Allen sped up to a decent pace, running, but running as slowly as he could. When he got to Kanda, he thought for a moment about the order. "What I want to do least is follow your orders." he said after a few seconds contemplation.

"You son of a bitch." Kanda snarled. _'At least I know he's still aware when I'm telling him to do crap. But I am two seconds away from hitting him the face…Or..'_

"You know what I meant, beansprout. Hit yourself hard enough to knock the air out of your lungs, your time's nearly up anyway." That way he wouldn't have to do it himself. Besides, he could hear someone walking closer to them anyway.

Allen punched himself hard in the stomach, and fell to the floor on all fours. He coughed as he tried to get his breath back, and blinked as the time was up and his memory of the last minute wiped. "You… bastard…" he choked out as he tried to breath. _Obviously getting away isn't working… _Every time he regained his awareness, he was right back in front of Kanda. So, his mind went to the only remaining solution. Attack.

He was right in front of Kanda, so all he had to do was leap forward, activating his innocence as he slammed into Kanda's stomach. As he felt the cloak cover his shoulders, he tried to direct the belt to cover Kanda's mouth as he reached to grab Kanda's hands so he couldn't grab Mugen. _If I can just gag him so he can't talk…_ In his rage, Allen didn't hear the approaching footsteps.

Kanda wasn't going to be tied up that easily. He ignored the chance he could have had to have just called Allen to stop, and quickly pulled out Mugen with the remaining space he had to ward off Allen's hands. Recoiling from the force of Allen's self-thrown body, the taller exorcist slammed into the wall of the hallway, the only sound he made from impact blocked by Allen's cloak. '_I prefer a fight over those stupid commands anyway.'_

The footsteps became closer and closer, before Calera finally turned the corner to see the two fighting. A pretty average occurrence, except for how adamant Allen was at keeping Kanda's mouth shut tight. Watching as Kanda tried to activate his sword, unleashing the energy that surrounded the blades in order to try to get Allen away, she awkwardly spoke.

"Just what in the entire order happened here?"


	9. Chapter Nine

Allen growled as Kanda managed to evade his hands and pull out his sword. He grabbed at the sword with his clawed left hand, trying to prevent Kanda from stabbing or slicing him with it. His other hand tried to cover Kanda's mouth as he pressed against his body, trying to pin him to the wall. He wasn't fighting carefully at all, he was just desperate to stop Kanda from saying anything else. He heard a voice behind him, and glanced momentarily to see Calera behind him.

"He knows the goddamn phrase!" he growled, concentrating once again on trying to subdue Kanda. "He's pulling the same shit as Lavi, making me do weird stuff." He didn't actually remember anything he did, but he was positive Kanda would have used the opportunity to humiliate him.

"WHAT? I didn't think he'd…God damn it, Kanda!" She shouted, ignoring the formality that she was supposed to give. Kanda just squinted his eyes at her, the other half of his face mostly covered by Allen's hand. He noticed how Allen wasn't fighting adequately, and took his opportunity to use his sword-free hand to grip the one clinging to his face, and twisted it violently, yanking it off for a few seconds. Allen was already fighting, the conditions were set, and a few seconds were all he needed to show Calera what he had done.

"Stop moving, sprout." Kanda spat out, jaw aching from the tight grip it had endured. Calera just watched angrily, trying to think of a quick way out of the situation that she and Allen had been thrust in by the sword-wielding man.

'_You have got to be kidding me…'_

Allen winced as his wrist was twisted and pulled away from Kanda's face. Before he could get free from Kanda's grip, he spoke another command. Allen froze, and glowered silently at Kanda. Now that he was not moving, he noticed how awkwardly his body was positioned. His wrist was still in Kanda's grip and his body pressed close to Kanda's in his attempts to stop the other from moving. He swore mentally as he blushed, hoping Kanda would push him away since he was unable to move.

_Calera, do something!_

"What the hell sort of trigger did you give him, K…_Master _Kanda_?" _She snapped. This wasn't any 'say a word and you do this'. Kanda wouldn't have bothered with that. But then why was Allen reacting so strongly to the trigger, and what was the extent of it?

"Because I need to answer a finder. Why don't you go find something to do that's worth your time?" Kanda snidely responded. Looking down at Allen's stiff form, he 'gently' pushed Allen off of him, and smirked over to where the finder stood. Allen fell to the ground with a moderate thud, but Allen didn't seem like he moved himself by an inch. "You knew what that phrase could do, all I did was add a bit more. He won't remember anything once about half a minute has passed from now, so I'll be quick, for the both of you. If sprout wants to hurt or run from me, I control him for a minute. That simple."

Calera let out a small breath of relief. '_That can be easily fixed. For a second there I thought Kanda had done something worse.'_ It didn't excuse this at all, and Allen being shoved over like that didn't help matters whatsoever, but she could fix this if she could get just 10 seconds of silence from Kanda. But how to get that was the question, especially since he knows that she can put Allen under just as easily as he.

Allen stayed on the ground after Kanda shoved him off, still glaring but unable to make himself move. He wanted to say something, to make Kanda stop treating Calera like dirt, or to just swear at him, but the command seemed to apply to moving his mouth as well, and he could not speak. _He can only control me for a minute, but I'm going to forget that as soon as its over… if I get mad or run he can control me again, but I won't remember that either…_

"Surprising." Kanda jeered.

Calera was just getting more and more pissed off, but held it in as much as she could, trying to feverishly work out a way to get Allen out of this mess. "What could be so surprising? I would have thought that nothing much could have done _that _anymore."

"Shut up. I'm just wondering how the rabbit did this." Kanda drawled, watching Allen out of the corner of his eye for any movement. If he ignored the sprout for too long, he could end up just running away before Kanda had a chance to see what else he could do. _'Damn, this finder is getting annoying..'_

'_That's it. Allen could run off if I distract master Kanda long enough. Just long enough for a few seconds, perhaps a minute.' _Time to see how far Kanda can argue before he tries to kill a finder like her.

Allen watched the two of them, waiting out the time until he would once again be in control of his body… and when he would forget what was even going on.

Allen blinked, looking around. _Why am I on the floor?_ He looked up and saw Kanda next to him, and not far Calera was standing, looking angry. Allen stayed still, trying to get a grasp on what the situation was. He remembered fighting with Kanda, and Calera showed up… and then nothing. _God damn it, Kanda did whatever he is doing again._ Rather than get up and fight again, since Kanda wasn't paying much attention to him at the moment, he stayed still, biding his time.

"Master Kanda, you know I can wipe away those conditions you gave Allen just as quickly as you gave them. As can Lavi, especially if he was the one to put him under in the first place, as you are so inclined to believe." She venomously spat out, aiming to let Allen get enough time to snap out of the minute-long time span.

"Try it, finder. I'll have you unconscious and the sprout ready to fight me again, and that's all I need to have him be controlled." Kanda gave a swift smirk to the finder, before grabbing the collar of her cloak and dragging her near the blade of his sword.

"I won't use this on you, Mugen isn't worth that. Why don't you run, finder? You aren't like the sprout, running or fighting won't bring you under my power, so flee. That's what you do whenever an akuma arrives, and I'm far more dangerous than any akuma could be to you." Calera just stared at Kanda, mind racing with panic, but just barely managing to keep a sustained glare back at those piercing eyes. Risking a glance over at Allen, she saw him with his head turned. It was slight, but he wasn't able to move before. He could leave.

Allen grit his teeth, wanting to jump up and help her, but knowing Kanda could easily stop him now if he did. He noticed Calera glance at him, and realized what she was trying to do. _Thank you…_

He slowly rose, making sure Kanda's attention was on the finder, and started backing away down the hall. His years of training with Cross, having to sneak in and out of wherever they were staying whenever Cross brought home women, made Allen very good at walking with no sound, and he carefully made his way towards the nearest corner, figuring the sooner he was out of sight, the more likely he would actually manage to get away.

_I should try to find her room and just hide in there. No one will look for me there hopefully. _Now he was going to have to avoid both Kanda and Lavi, and try to find Calera later to try to get the triggers removed. He planned to ask her to remove the phrase that made him fall under hypnosis as well, he had quite enough of that for now.

"I'm not worried, Master Kanda, and I refuse to run as well. Consider it a bold move, but I'm trying to just do my job."

Kanda narrowed his eyes, and sheathed his sword before grabbing the finder around the neck with the previously sword-held hand. Not enough pressure to stop her breathing, but certainly enough to hurt. "And what sort of job would that be? I don't remember you ever being assigned to babysit the sprout."

Calera gave another risky glance over to where Allen used to be. He must be leaving around the corner. If she can distract Kanda for a few more moments, she can try fleeing herself. "It's my job to help..Protect other exorcists, and I believe this would be part of it!" '_Kind of hard to speak with that clamp of a hand around my neck.'_

"Wait. _How long has it been_?" Kanda growled. He knew the answer already. The beansprout could easily be out of hearing distance by now, and his game was useless. "The sprout decided to leave someone like you behind. Tch, you would have thought he'd have struck out at your pain." Dropping the finder, he walked past her, towards the training hall once more. He wasn't interested in fighting the finder over something that wasn't there. '_Unless…'_

Allen crept around the corner, apologizing mentally to Calera for leaving her behind. He hoped Kanda wouldn't be too rough on her. He couldn't remember any times Kanda actually hurt a girl.. but that didn't really mean anything.

As soon as he felt like it was safe and Kanda wouldn't hear him, he started sprinting down the halls, making a wide circle around where he last saw Kanda to try to get to the area where the rooms were so he could find Calera's. He turned a corner, and ran into someone, knocking them over and falling on top of them.

"Oww… sorry, I should have been more…" Allen let his voice trail off as he got up and looked at who he had knocked over. Lavi stared up at him in surprise.

"Oh, hey Sprout. Kanda didn't kill you yet?"

_Why can't I catch a break?_

Calera slowly got up off the floor, thanking the heavens that Kanda didn't see her as as much of a threat or a nuisance as the other male finders. Forget the fact that it might have been sexist. She's well enough to go find her friend. Rushing off, she made her way to her own room, thinking that perhaps she would find Allen hiding around her. Hearing the rabbit's voice, she dodged behind the corner of the wall, and listened for him to leave, if it weren't for what Lavi said.

"What's the matter buddy? Didn't Calera take the last thing off of you? And how did you get away from Yu so fast?"Lavi watched Allen's expressions, and the way his eyes flicked backwards, back towards the hall that he was running from gave the rabbit answer enough. "Oh, you didn't." Lavi couldn't let this go to waste, and grabbed Allen's arm before the smaller one could try to flee. "Hey! It's not like He gave you a trig- _Ohhhhh_…" he twisted his smile in a smirk. He saw the answer in Allen's eyes. Now he had to know what happened.

"Let go of me Lavi!" Allen said in a furious whisper, not wanting to speak too loudly in case Kanda was nearby looking for him. He was trying very hard to not punch Lavi, but the longer he was in the redhead's presence, the stronger that urge felt. "This is your entire fault! Let me go now or I really will hit you."

"Aww, but I want to see what he did to ya~! But wait! I have an easy solution to this!" Lavi cheered. It would make it so Allen wouldn't run, and maybe let Lavi in on the obvious fun Kanda was having with the sprout too! "Sink and listen, my friend. We're going to go find Yu together!"

Calera stormed out from where she was hiding, she was not going to let Lavi pull another one of his triggers on the entranced exorcist. "Lavi! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"_**Apparently, trying to find an easy way to die**_." Said the familiar, dark voice, quickly breaking in on the scene. Kanda was just waiting for Calera to lead him back to the quarry he had just held.

Allen scrambled backwards when he heard Lavi say he had a solution, he knew exactly what Lavi meant by that. But before he could get up off the floor to run, he was put under hypnosis once again. He sat there, oblivious to his surroundings as Calera and Kanda appeared.

"Hi there Yu! I was just about to go look for ya-"

"Shut the hell up Rabbit, and maybe I won't try to cut you open when you flee." Kanda growled, shoving Calera to the side. She wasn't hurt by the toss, but it certainly wouldn't help her if she tried to stop those two.

So Calera did her part by just feigning fright and letting Kanda storm past. While they argued, she carefully crawled her way towards Allen, and carefully began to whisper in his ear. She didn't get very far, having forgotten how well Lavi's ears are tuned. _('Why is she not afraid of me..She must have put on a trigger for it before! Oh, she's GOOD._ "_**Hey Yu**_-!"') "Allen, please just ignore"-

Lavi motioned Calera's actions to Kanda, and he was quick to snap out. "-Anything you hear Calera say." Calera froze, before looking up to glare at the two. "Really? How did you even learn I gave him that command, Lavi!?"

"Because you didn't fear me being near ya while you were doing it!"

"But I forgot!"

Allen's mind stored the new order flawlessly, as his physical body did little else than sway slightly and drool a bit from the corner of his mouth.

"Guess your own subconscious gave me the clues I needed~! Hey Yu, how about we strike a deal? You get to have your fun with Allen, but you gotta tell me what the triggers are, and make sure you take off the one that prevents him from listening to me, 'Kay?"

Kanda didn't look like he really wanted to sway for anyone, so Calera became all the more enraged when he just looked over at the rabbit and gave a huff of consent. "Leave, Rabbit. And take the finder with you. I'll tell you later."

Lavi just gave a comical salute of approval, and grabbed Calera by the shoulders, knowing that Kanda keeps his word. "Okay! I'll be seeing you later then, Yu!"

"I SWEAR TO GOD YOU TWO I WILL MAKE SURE You…" Calera trailed off, shutting up as she was helplessly dragged off by the stronger exorcist.

Kanda watched for a few moments, before turning to Allen to give a simple command. The minute long range was fun, so why not make it so Kanda could do it anytime? "When you wake up, anytime I begin a sentence with ' Sprout' or 'Moyashi', you'll immediately follow whatever the sentence commands, but forget I ever said the sentence."

Should be interesting to see. "Wake up, sprout." Kanda wondered what Allen would make of the whole ordeal.

Allen woke up and looked around. Hadn't he just run into Lavi? He looked up and saw Kanda standing over him, and was filled with dread. Allen absentmindedly wiped the thin line of spit that was on his chin, and looked around nervously.

_Oh no. What happened _this _time?_

Luckily, he had heard some of what Calera had been saying to Kanda before he ran off, and knew what he needed to avoid. _I can't get angry at him. I can't think about running away._ He took a deep breath and stood. He let the breath out slowly, trying to keep his mind empty. _I'm going to go get a snack. Just going to go eat._ He concentrated on the thought that he was merely walking away for food, not to escape, and started walking away, ignoring Kanda.

Interesting, so Allen is just trying to walk away, not even run? _'I guess the sprout must have heard me talking to Calera about that damn trigger…not like it means much for him now.'_ "Sprout, walk back over here. Thinking about running won't help you anymore. Moyashi, make sure you walk at a decent pace this time, not that snail's walk you tried earlier today." Kanda called after him, as soon as he thought Allen had gone a far enough distance as to give the shorter one a bit of hope. '_Nice try, sprout. Allen won't forget anything this time, well, he'll forget two of my sentences, but the middle and his own walking should be enough to clue him in on the game.'_

Allen had begun to hope that Kanda might just let him go, but the next thing he knew, he was walking back towards Kanda. _What?_

"Thinking about running won't help you anymore." he heard Kanda say, and he grit his teeth in frustration as he increased his pace until he was standing in front of Kanda again. _How am I going to get out of this?_

"Kanda… please just stop. This has all gone too far." he said, hoping maybe Kanda would take pity on him. It hurt his pride to do this, but he was really sick of being controlled and manipulated. "If this is about how I acted towards you, I was being controlled. You can see now that I can't do anything to stop it. Please just let me find Calera to take this thing away…"


End file.
